Server reservation method, reservation control apparatus and program storage medium

ABSTRACT

To allow many users to efficiently use functions of a processing server that performs predetermined processing, via a network and also prevent a time during which an user can use the processing server, from being shortened due to a difference between the times recognized by the user side and processing server side. In a content supply system  100,  in order to use a streaming server  102  to perform a live distribution, an user PC  106  to be used makes a reservation for a time zone, etc. to a server reservation control center  101  over the Internet  103.  When the reservation is accepted, the server reservation control center  101  sends the real time information of the service provider side that controls the service time of the streaming server  102  based on the reservation, over the Internet  103.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/932,968, filedAug. 21, 2001 and claims the benefit of priority from prior JapanesePatent Application No. 2000-264579, filed Aug. 31, 2000, the entirecontents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a server reservation method for making areservation for the use of the functions of a processing server thatperforms predetermined processing by accessing the processing server viaa network, a reservation control apparatus that controls reservationsfor the use of the processing server and a program storage medium thatstores a program to be executed by the reservation control apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art

In a computer network system, an individual generally opens a homepageto provide created content over the Internet.

When a user personally opens a homepage, the user acquires a homepagecreation program with a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as“PC”), creates a homepage hyper-linked with a plurality of content basedon the homepage creation program and stores the homepage in a server ofan Internet service provider (hereinafter referred to as “ISP”).

Then, the ISP provides the homepage to a client who has accessed it overthe Internet from the server and when an anchor on the homepage isclicked, then the ISP provides linked content.

In recent years, content to be supplied to clients over the Internetinclude many motion pictures and sounds in addition to still pictures.To provide content such as motion pictures, motion picture files andaudio files created by the user are uploaded beforehand in apredetermined storage area in a streaming server of the ISP. Then, uponreceiving a client's request, the streaming server of the ISPdistributes corresponding files to the client by streaming over theInternet.

Furthermore, the technique of distributing content such as motionpictures to clients over the Internet includes a technique called “livedistribution”, in addition to “on-demand distribution” whereby a motionpicture file is uploaded in a streaming server beforehand anddistributed in response to a request from a client as described above.In the live distribution, motion picture data created by a contentcreator, for example, using a digital camera, is encoded in real timeand is sent to the streaming server over the Internet, etc. Then, thestreaming server reproduces the motion picture data supplied in realtime from the content creator while recording it in a dedicated storagearea, and can thereby supply the motion picture data in real time to therequesting client.

On the other hand, when the above-described live distribution isperformed, the content creator needs to send motion picture data to thestreaming server in real time, and therefore it is necessary to secure acommunication path to transmit motion picture data between the streamingserver and a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) of thecontent creator while live distribution is performed. This limits thenumber of content that can be distributed by live distribution using thestreaming server at the same time, and in a rush time zone, there is aproblem that some content distributors who have been preparing for livedistribution in the time zone may not perform live distribution in thattime zone.

In order to prevent such a problem and perform live distribution byeffectively using the streaming server, it is possible to use thestreaming server based on a reservation system. Adopting such areservation system allows a content creator to make a reservation andcarry out live distribution in the reserved time zone.

By the way, it is rare that the real time information of the streamingserver on the above-described service provider side is exactly the sameas the real time information stored in the PC used by the contentcreator for content transmission, and generally there is a difference inthe real time information between them. In the system that is to performlive distribution in the above-described reserved time zone, there maybe cases where it is impossible to perform live distribution using theentire reserved time zone due to a difference in the time informationbetween the streaming server which is the service provider side and thePC of the content creator. For example, it is supposed that the timeinformation stored by the PC of the content creator is ahead of the timeinformation stored by the streaming server which is the apparatus on theservice provider side, the content creator recognizes the distributionstart time based on the reservation and transmits the content byreferring to the time of the own PC. In this case, since the streamingserver recognizes at this time that the distribution start time based onthe reservation does not come yet, it does not receive the content sentfrom the content creator, or if do, it does not perform distributionprocessing. As a result, there exists a waste of time after the contentcreator has started to send content until the streaming server starts tocarry out stream distribution processing, which make the actual livedistribution time shorter than the reserved time zone.

Such a problem can occur not only in the reservation system for thestreaming server for carrying out a live distribution but also in thecase where a processing server that performs predetermined processingother than the live distribution is used based on a reservation systemwhen a user side PC uses the functions of thee processing server via anetwork such as the Internet and there is a difference in the timeinformation between an apparatus which controls reservations of theprocessing server and the client PC that uses the processing server.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, an object of this invention is to provide aserver reservation method, a reservation control apparatus and a programstorage medium which are capable of allowing many users to efficientlyuse the functions of a processing server that performs predeterminedprocessing, via a network, and at the same time preventing the timeduring which the user can use the processing server, from being reduceddue to a difference between the times recognized by the user side andprocessing server side.

The foregoing object and other objects of the invention have beenachieved by the provision of taking the following steps when a userterminal apparatus makes a reservation for the user of a processingserver that performs predetermined processing, via the network via areservation control apparatus that controls the reservation state of theprocessing server, in order to use the functions of the processingserver by accessing the processing server via the network. At first, theuser terminal apparatus sends reservation request information includinga desired service time to use the processing server, to the reservationcontrol apparatus via the network. If the reservation for the use of theprocessing server during the desired service time included in thereservation request information is accepted, the reservation controlapparatus sends the real time information of the server side to be usedfor time control when the processing server is used based on thereservation, to the user terminal apparatus via the network.

Adopting such a reservation system to use the functions of theprocessing server allows many users of user terminal apparatuses toefficiently use the processing server. Furthermore, since the real timeinformation of the server side to be used for time control when theprocessing server is used based on the reservation is sent to the userterminal apparatus, the user can recognize the real time information ofthe server side. Therefore, if the real time information of the userterminal apparatus owned by the user is different from the real timeinformation of the server side, the user can recognize this differenceand use the processing server in the time zone based on the reservation.

As described above, the present invention allows many users toefficiently use the functions of the processing server that performspredetermined processing, via a network and can also prevent the timeduring which the user can use the processing server, from beingshortened due to a difference between the times recognized by the userside and processing server side.

The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become moreapparent from the following detailed description when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts aredesignated by like reference numerals or characters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outlined overall configuration of acontent supply system to which a server reservation method according toan embodiment of the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a user PC thatutilizes a personal casting service in the content supply system;

FIGS. 3A to 3D are perspective views showing configuration examples ofappearance of the user PC above;

FIG. 4 is a drawing showing an initial screen when an applicationprogram of the user PC starts;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are drawings showing a display screen of the displaysection of the user PC in a capture mode;

FIGS. 6A to 6C are drawings showing a display screen of the displaysection of the user PC in an upload mode;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are drawings showing a display screen of the displaysection of the user PC in a Web check mode;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are drawings showing a display screen of the displaysection of the user PC in a live reservation mode;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are drawings showing a display screen of the displaysection of the user PC in a live distribution mode;

FIG. 10 is a drawing showing an effect display field in the livedistribution mode;

FIGS. 11A to 11C are drawings showing a display screen during effectsetting processing in the live distribution mode;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a serverreservation control apparatus of the content supply system;

FIG. 13 is a drawing showing the top page of a Web page stored in a harddisk of a live casting server of the server reservation controlapparatus;

FIGS. 14 to 17 are drawings showing the Web page stored in the hard diskof the live casting server;

FIG. 18 is a drawing showing the contents of the reservation database ofthe server reservation control apparatus;

FIG. 19 is a sequence flow chart showing processing operations by theuser PC and the live casting server during member registration;

FIG. 20 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC during the member registration;

FIG. 21 is a sequence flow chart showing processing operations by theuser PC and the live casting server during distribution reservation;

FIG. 22 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the distribution reservation;

FIG. 23 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the distribution reservation;

FIG. 24 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the distribution reservation above;

FIG. 25 is a sequence flow chart showing processing operations by theuser PC and the live casting server during reconfirmation processing inthe distribution reservation;

FIG. 26 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing;

FIG. 27 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing;

FIG. 28 is a drawing showing a reservation setting information filecreated by the live casting server and sent to the user PC during thereconfirmation processing;

FIG. 29 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing;

FIG. 30 is a drawing showing the contents of e-mail to be sent to e-mailaddresses specified during the reconfirmation processing;

FIGS. 31 to 33 are drawings showing a display screen shown on thedisplay section of the user PC when a reservation is changed;

FIGS. 34 and 35 are drawings showing a display screen shown on thedisplay section above of the user PC above when a reservation iscanceled;

FIG. 36 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC when a reservation is confirmed;

FIG. 37 is a sequence flow chart showing processing operations in thecontent supply system during the live distribution;

FIG. 38 is a drawing showing a display screen of a client PC thatreceives a content supply during the live distribution;

FIG. 39 is a schematic drawing showing an overall configuration of anetwork system according to a modification of the embodiment;

FIG. 40 is a schematic perspective view showing an externalconfiguration of a camera-integrated digital cellular phone;

FIG. 41 is a schematic perspective view showing a display section of thecamera-integrated digital cellular phone when the camera is rotated; and

FIG. 42 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of thecamera-integrated digital cellular phone.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

Preferred embodiments of this invention will be described with referenceto the accompanying drawings:

A. Configuration of content supply system

A-1. Configuration Outline of Entire System

At first, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration ofa content supply system 100 that supplies a personal casting serviceusing a method of using a server according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. This embodiment describes a case where the presentinvention is applied to a method of using a streaming server with afunction of distributing content such as motion picture data bystreaming, but the present invention can also be applied to methods ofusing servers with different processing functions.

As shown in FIG. 1, this content supply system 100 comprises a user PC(distributor terminal apparatus) 106 connected to the Internet 103 viaan Internet service provider (not shown) and telephone network 104, aserver reservation control center 101 connected to the Internet 103, astreaming server (processing server) 102 and a plurality (three in thefigure) of client PCs 107 connected to the Internet 103 with a telephoneline (not shown) or a dedicated line (not shown). The streaming server102 is connected to a dedicated server connection network 108, and whendata is sent from the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102 during alive distribution, which will be described later, the user PC 106connects to an access port of the dedicated server connection network108 based on point-to-point protocol (PPP) via the telephone network104. This establishes a communication path between the user PC 106 andstreaming server 102 and the content data can be sent using thiscommunication path. A dedicated line 109 is also laid between thestreaming server 102 and the server reservation control center 101 anddata is transferred between them using the dedicated line 109 inauthentication processing, etc. which will be described later.

In this content supply system 100, the user of the user PC 106 sendscontent data (e.g., video data, etc. obtained by shooting a music live)shot by a digital camera, etc. to the streaming server 102 in a reservedtime zone (e.g., 15:00 to 16:00), while the streaming server 102distributes the content data by streaming to the client PC 107 that hasrequested. In this way, the content supply system 100 can provide apersonal casting service that implements personal broadcasting such thatcontent data shot by the user of the user PC 106 using a digital camera,etc. is received and reproduced by the client PC 107 in real time.

Furthermore, this content supply system 100 adopts a reservation systemwhereby each user makes a reservation for using or accessing thestreaming server 102 in order to implement a personal casting servicethat allows the user to reliably transmit personal broadcasting in adesired time zone. That is, the user requests the server reservationcontrol center 101 over the Internet 103 for a reservation of a timezone during which the user wants to carry out personal broadcasting,that is, a time zone during which the user (PC) wants to access thestreaming server 102 and use the stream distribution function of thestreaming server 102. Then, when the reservation is permitted by theserver reservation control center 101, the user PC 106 can access thestreaming server 102 in the time zone based on this reservation andperform the live distribution.

The content supply system 100 is a system that provides the personalcasting service utilizing the above-described reservation system, andthe components of this content supply system 100 will be explained indetail below.

A-2. User PC

At first, the user PC 106 will be explained. In this embodiment, theuser PC 106 is kind of a PC which is used to transmit content data by auser who has the right to become a broadcasting party who creates andtransmits content data after completing a registration procedure, etc.which will be described later in a personal casting service by thecontent supply system 100.

As shown in FIG. 2, the user PC 106 comprises a central processing unit(CPU) 120 that performs various kinds of operation processing andcontrols each section, a random access memory (RAM) 121 used as a workmemory of the CPU 120, a read only memory (ROM) 122 that stores a set ofprograms to be read and executed by the CPU 120, a hard disk 123 thatstores a set of programs such as an operating system (e.g., “Windows95/98/2000” (Microsoft Corporation)) and application programs, etc. tobe read and executed by the CPU 120, a display section 124 such as aliquid crystal display that displays an image for the user, a displayinterface 125 to display an image based on data supplied from the CPU120 on the display section 124, an operation section 126 such as akeyboard, mouse and rotatable dial and operation button which will bedescribed later, used by the user to enter instructions, an operationsection interface 127 that supplies data indicating instructions enteredvia the operation section 126 to the CPU 120, a network interface 128that transmits/receives data to/from devices connected to the internet103 (see FIG. 1) and the dedicated server connection network 108 (seeFIG. 1) via a telephone network 104 (see FIG. 1), and a digital videocamera 129 incorporated in the user PC 106. By the way, data in the harddisk 123 is read/written by the CPU 120 and the hard disk 123 alsostores motion picture data and various kinds of control data.

Here, FIGS. 3A to 3D illustrate configuration examples of appearance ofthe user PC 106 with the built-in digital video camera 129. As shown inFIG. 3A, the user PC 106 shown in this example comprises, as in the caseof a general notebook personal computer, a display side case 106 aprovided with a liquid crystal screen 124 a and a keyboard side case 106b provided with a keyboard 126 a and both are connected in a relativelypivotable manner by a hinge 106 c. Furthermore, the display side case106 a is also made relatively pivotable with respect to the keyboardside case 106 b in the direction indicated by an arrow A in the figure.Furthermore, a rotatable operation dial 126 b is provided on one side ofthe display side case 106 a. This operation dial 126 b can be not onlyrotated but also pressed.

On one end face of the keyboard side case 106 b are attached a buttoncase 106 e with a plurality (four in the figure) of operation buttons126 c and the above-described digital video camera 129. The button case106 e is fixed to the keyboard side case 106 b as illustrated. On theother hand, the digital video camera 129 is supported at one point onthe lateral end face of the keyboard side case 106 b in a pivotablemanner, which allows the digital video camera 129 to rotate freely inthe direction shown by an arrow B in the figure.

With such a structure, the user PC 106 can be used not only in the modesimilar to a general notebook personal computer shown in FIG. 3A butalso in modes shown in FIGS. 3B to 3D. For example, in the mode shown inFIG. 3B, the user can hold the user PC 106 to take pictures of the userhimself/herself using the digital video camera 129. In this case, sincea liquid crystal screen 124 a faces to the user side as illustrated, theuser can take pictures while checking the video. In this mode, thekeyboard 126 a is located on the side opposite to the user, and it isdifficult for the user to operate the keyboard correctly. Taking intoaccount this point, operations related to photographing and processingof video, etc. of the digital video camera 129 (e.g., operations toinstruct start and stop of photographing, zooming, addition of effects,saving of motion picture data and transmission, etc.) in a processingaccording to an application program described later can be performed byoperating the above-described operation dial 126 b and operation buttons126 c. Furthermore, in the mode shown in FIG. 3C, the user can hold theuser PC 106 to take pictures of a target in front while watching the LCDscreen 124 a.

Returning to FIG. 2, the user PC 106 is configured to perform variouskinds of processing such as motion picture data distribution processingserviced from the above-described content supply system 100,creation/processing of motion picture data and world-wide web (WWW)browsing by the CPU 120 executing an application program stored in theROM 122 and the hard disk 123 based on turning ON of a power supply (notshown) and instructions input by the user with the operation section126. Hereinafter, focused on various functions realized by the CPU 120executing the processing according to the application program, thefunctions of the user PC 106 will be explained with reference to thedisplay screen, etc.

At first, when the user PC 106 executes the application program, aninitial screen as shown in FIG. 4 appears on the display section 124under the control of CPU 120. As shown in the same figure, this initialscreen shows a large-size main screen display area 40 for displaying animage taken with the digital video camera 129, etc. and a small-size subimage display area 41 for displaying a preview of the last image takenwhen the application program was executed previously on the upper rightside of the screen. Furthermore, a graphical user interface (GUI) toselect a mode, type of image (camera), setting and the contents of aninstruction (operation) is displayed under the sub image display area41. By selecting and setting these items, the user can select a mode,select the type of image such as still picture (STILL) or motion picture(MOVIE), change the settings and enter instructions, etc.

In this application, the user can select an mode from five modes of acapture mode (a mode when “Capture” on the GUI is selected), an uploadmode (a mode when “View/send” on the GUI is selected), a Web check mode(a mode when “View Web” on the GUI is selected), a live reservation mode(a mode when “To live reservation/check” on the GUI is selected) and alive distribution mode (mode when “To live distribution” on the GUI isselected). By the way, the capture mode is selected in the initial stateof the time when the application program is started.

The capture mode is a mode in which pictures are taken with the digitalvideo camera 129 incorporated in the user PC 106 and when this mode isselected or in the initial state, a screen as shown in FIG. 5A isdisplayed under the control of CPU 120. As shown in the same figure, thedisplay screen in the capture mode shows the main image display area 40and sub image display area 41 in the same way as in the above-describedinitial screen (see FIG. 4), and the main image display area 40 showsthe picture currently being taken and the sub image display area 41shows a preview of the last image taken before the current capture.

In this mode, too, the above-described GUI is shown under the sub imagedisplay area 41. As shown in FIG. 5B, the GUI in this mode showsselection items such as “mode”, “camera”, “setting” and “operation”. Theselection item “operation” in this mode includes an item (“capture”) toinstruct a capture of an image and an item to instructconnection/disconnection with the Internet (“net connect/disconnect),etc. and it is possible to select and decide a desired item by rotatingthe operation dial 126 b, moving the focus F (shown with bold line) tothe desired item and then pressing the operation dial 126 b.

Furthermore, in this capture mode, if a command, etc. which is requiredfor capture (e.g., command to instruct a selection of an effect to begiven to an image) is assigned to the operation button 126 c (see FIG.3) provided on the button case 106 e, the user can perform operations inthe capture mode only through operations of the operation dial 126 b andoperation buttons 126 c without using the keyboard 126 a (see FIG. 3)making it possible to easily perform a capture operation in the modewhen the keyboard 126 a is in a position that makes it difficult tooperate the keyboard as shown in FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C. By the way, theabove-described command can be assigned to the operation buttons 126 cas default, but in this capture mode and other modes which will beexplained below, it is also possible to allow the user to freely selecta command to be assigned to the operation buttons 126 c for each mode.In this way, the user sets so that commands frequently used in each modeare assigned to the operation buttons 126 c and can thereby reduce thenecessity of operating the keyboard 126 a and improve the operability ineach mode.

The status window SW shown at the bottom of the screen in FIG. 5A showsthe current condition of the user PC 106 (e.g., the battery level andthe vacant storage space of the hard disk drive, etc.), processingcondition in the selected mode (e.g., data size of the image beingtaken), a specified storage medium (hard disk and network, etc.) andinformation on the command assignment of the operation buttons 126 c.

Then, the upload mode is a mode in which the image data taken in theabove-described capture mode is displayed or referenced or the imagedata is selected and transmitted to a server (not shown) at apredetermined upload destination connected to the Internet 103 (see FIG.1). When this mode is selected, a screen as shown in FIG. 6A isdisplayed on the display section 124 under the control of CPU 120. Asshown in the same figure, the display screen in the upload mode shows apreview area 42, a list display area 43 that shows images taken in atile form (lined vertically in the example in the figure), a GUI, astatus window SW and a transmission capsule icon SC.

As shown in FIG. 6B, “operation” of the GUI in the upload mode includesan item to instruct connection/disconnection with the Internet(“connect/disconnect Net”), an item to instruct start/end oftransmission of image data (“transmit start/stop”), an item to instructmovement of the focus F to the list display area 43 (“Move focus”), anitem to instruct a view inside the transmission capsule icon SC, thatis, a view of the list of image data selected to be sent (“seetransmission capsule”), etc. and it is possible to select a desired itemby rotating the operation dial 126 b to move the focus F to a desireditem and then pressing the operation dial 126 b.

Furthermore, in the upload mode, the operation buttons 126 c areassigned commands to instruct replay/stop of a motion picture in thepreview area 42 and display of a still picture, etc. Furthermore, thestatus window SW in this mode shows the file name of image data, filesize, format (joint photographic experts group (JPEG) and moving pictureexperts group (MPEG), etc.) and information indicating the transmissiondestination currently specified (the name of the server to be uploadedand its uniform resource locator (URL)).

Here, when an item instructing the move of the focus F to the listdisplay area 43 (“Move focus”) is selected, the focus F moves to thelist display area 43. When the focus F moves to the list display area43, the focus F sequentially moves from one listed image to anotheraccording to the rotation operation of the operation dial 126 b. Whenthe user wants to send some image data, the user rotates the operationdial 126 b and moves the focus F onto the relevant image data. Then,pressing the operation dial 126 b shows a SUBGUI to instruct processingon the image data as shown in FIG. 6A and the focus F moves onto an itemof this SUBGUI. As shown in FIG. 6C, the SUBGUI includes instructionitems such as “Save”, “Delete”, “Preview” and “Enter into transmissioncapsule”. Here, when the user rotates the operation dial 126 b to movethe focus F onto “Enter into transmission capsule” which is desiredprocessing and presses the operation dial 126 b, the relevant image datais added to the list of image data to be sent. When the user selectsimage data to be sent and sends the image data in this way, the userreturns the focus F onto an item of the GUI and selects “transmitstart/stop”. When “transmit start/stop” is selected, the processing oftransmission of the image data selected by the CPU 120 of the user PC106 is executed.

Next, the Web check mode is a mode for connecting to a network such asthe Internet and carrying out browsing. When the Web check mode isselected, a screen as shown in FIG. 7A is displayed on the displaysection 124 under the control of CPU 120. As shown in the same figure,the Web check mode shows a browser display screen 44 that shows a Webbrowser, a URL display field 45 that shows URLs entered to displayresources on the browser display screen 44, a GUI and a status windowSW. Here, when the Web check mode is selected, the CPU 120 executesbrowser software stored in the hard disk 123 (e.g., Internet Explorer(Microsoft Corporation) and Netscape Navigator (registered trademark ofNetscape Communications Inc.)) and the display screen is shown on thebrowser display screen 44 by the browser software.

As shown in FIG. 7B, the GUI in the Web check mode shows “browsing” toselect an instruction item in browsing and “browsing” shows an item toinstruct a jump to a predetermined Web page (“Jump”) and an item tooperate the browser (e.g., “Next” or “Return”, etc.). “Operation” inthis mode includes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with theInternet (“Connect/disconnect Net”), an item to instruct movement of thefocus F to the browser display screen 44 (“Move focus”), etc. and it ispossible to select a desired item by rotating the operation dial 126 bto move the focus F to a desired item and then pressing the operationdial 126 b.

This “Web check” allows the user to perform general browsing processingsuch as entering a URL and performing browsing.

Then, the live reservation mode is a mode to reserve a time zone, etc.to be connected to the server reservation control center 101 (seeFIG. 1) over the Internet 103 and carry out personal broadcasting usingthe above personal casting service. When the live reservation mode isselected, a screen as shown in FIG. 8A is displayed on the displaysection 124 under the control of CPU 120. As shown in the same figure,the live reservation mode shows a reservation list display area 46 inaddition to a browser display screen 44, a URL display field 45, a GUIand a status window SW in the same way as in the above Web check mode.

As shown in FIG. 8B, “operation” of the GUI in the live reservation modeincludes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with the Internet(“connect/disconnect net”) and item to instruct movement of the focus Fto the browser display screen 44 (“Move focus”), etc. The GUI in thismode shows “browsing” as in the case of the above Web check mode and“browsing” shows an item to instruct a jump to a Web page to make a livereservation (“Jump for reservation”) and an item to operate the browser(e.g., “Next” or “Return”, etc.) etc. It is possible for the user toselect a desired item by rotating the operation dial 126 b to move thefocus F to a desired item and then pressing the operation dial 126 b. Bythe way, the Web page to make a live reservation is kind of a Web pagethat is stored by the live casting server, which will be describedlater, in the server reservation control center 101 in its hard disk.

When the user makes a reservation for live distribution using thepersonal casting service, the user selects and decides the item toinstruct a jump to the Web page to make a reservation for distribution.Then, the CPU 120 accesses the live casting server over the Internet 103to make a live reservation and can thereby exchange reservation-relatedinformation such as sending reservation request information to therelevant live casting server and downloading the reservation settinginformation from the live casting server.

The reservation list display area 46 shows a list of the contents ofreservations made by the user to the above server reservation controlcenter 101 and displays outlined information such as a reservation timezone, etc. for each reservation. When the user rotates the operationdial 126 b to move the focus F onto the reservation list display area46, presses the operation dial 126 b and thereby selects the item on thereservation list display area 46 which shows the desired reservationoutlined information, then the CPU 120 controls such as jumping to theWeb page to check the reservation of the live casting server of theserver reservation control center 101. Details about thereservation-related processing between the user PC 106 and serverreservation control center 101 will be described later.

Then, the live distribution mode is a mode for connecting to thestreaming server 102 (see FIG. 1) via the telephone network 104 anddedicated server connection network 108 and transmitting content datasuch as motion picture data, etc. taken with the digital video camera129 to the streaming server 102 in real time and the content data sentin this mode is distributed by streaming by the streaming server 102 tothe client PC 107 that sent a request. This allows the user todistribute personal broadcasting in real time.

When such a live distribution mode is selected, a screen as shown inFIG. 9A appears on the display section 124 under the control of CPU 120.As shown in the same figure, the live reservation mode shows an effectdisplay field 48, a preview screen 47 that displays an image to be sentto the streaming server 102, that is, an image taken with the digitalvideo camera 129 with predetermined effects, etc. applied, the GUI andstatus window SW.

The status window SW in the live distribution mode shows on-airinformation that indicates that distribution is in progress,distribution elapsed time information indicating the elapsed time afterdistribution is started, time information on the service provider side,time information on the user PC 106 side, reserved time zone informationthat indicates reservation start time and reservation end time, imagesize information, bit rate information indicating the distribution datatransmission rate (bit rate), distributed image data title nameinformation, connection destination information indicating the connectedstreaming server 102 and its channel and audience number informationindicating the number of clients who receive content datastream-distributed by the streaming server 102, etc.

As shown in FIG. 9B, “operation” of the GUI in the live distributionmode includes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with theInternet (“Connect/disconnect Net”), an item to instruct the start/endof live distribution (“Start/finish distribution”), an effect settingitem to set effects shown in the effect display field 48 (“Set effect”),an item to instruct the movement of the focus F to the effect displayfield 48 (“Move focus”), etc. and it is possible to select a desireditem by rotating the operation dial 126 b to move the focus F to adesired item and pressing the operation dial 126 b.

Here, when the user selects and decides an item to instruct thestart/end of live distribution, the CPU 120 connects to the streamingserver 102 via the telephone network 104 and dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 according to the reservation setting information suppliedfrom the live casting server in the above live reservation mode. Then,when the connection with the streaming server 102 is established, theCPU 120 sends motion picture data taken with the digital video camera129 to the streaming server 102 in real time according to the contents(e.g., data transfer rate, etc.) set in the above reservation settinginformation. The processing of communication/connection with thestreaming server 102 and motion picture data transmission processing,etc. after communication/connection will be described later in detail.

As shown in FIG. 10, the effect display field 48 in the livedistribution mode displays effect names in order in the verticaldirection for each of button A and button B (marked “A” and “B” on theupper surface of the button, etc.) in the operation buttons 126 c. Theuppermost effect name is the currently selected effect name. In theexample of the figure, button A shows selection candidates such as“Heart pattern display”, “None”, “clapping sound” . . . starting fromthe top. These are used to instruct assignment of an effectcorresponding to the effect name enclosed by the focus F that relativelymoves when the user rotates the operation dial 126 b, that is, thecurrently selected effect name shown at the top and when the userpresses the button A in the operation buttons 126 c, the effectcorresponding to the effect name selected and enclosed by focus F isapplied to the image taken with the digital video camera 129. Forexample, in the figure, when button A is pressed, processing of adding aclapping sound which is the effect corresponding to the “Clapping sound”to the motion picture data taken with the digital video camera 129 isexecuted. The focus F moves relatively means that the operation of therotatable dial 126 b does not cause the focus F to move but causes thedisplay string of the effect name to scroll and as a result the focus Fmoves on the “effect name” displayed on the display string.

Button B shows an effect name “Title impose” currently enclosed by thefocus F, that is, selected and below this shows effect names such as“BGM1”, “Monochrome image”, “Title impose” . . . sequentially startingfrom the top. These are used to instruct that an effect corresponding tothe effect name enclosed by the focus F be applied and by the userpressing the button B in the operation buttons 126 c, the effectcorresponding to the effect name enclosed by the focus F is applied tothe image taken with the digital video camera 129. For example, in thefigure, when button B is pressed, processing of superimposing the titlename which is the effect corresponding to “Title impose” is executed onthe motion picture data taken with the digital video camera 129. Theeffect processing corresponding to button A is the addition of “clappingsound” which is processing to be temporarily applied, while the effectprocessing corresponding to button B is applied continuously. Therefore,a toggle button is used as button B in the operation buttons 126 c inthe user PC 106 and once pressed, effect applying processing such as“monochrome image”, etc. is continued until the button is pressed thenext time.

Furthermore, a preset effect name preset by the user is shown to theright of the effect names corresponding to button B on the screen. Theeffect shown here is applied continuously unless the effect to be presetis changed in the effect setting, which will be described later,irrespective of button operations. In the example in the figure,“Date/time” is set and in this case, the date/time is alwayssuperimposed in the motion picture data to be distributed.

The above effect processing is implemented assuming that livedistribution will be performed, that is, motion picture data taken withthe digital video camera 129 will be sent in real time. That is, whenlive distribution is performed, the user PC 106 sends images taken inreal time and the operation when applying effects, etc. to the imagestaken is required to be simple, and therefore it is designed thatprocessing can be executed by a single operation of pressing button A orbutton B as described above. However, while it is possible to instructthe processing of applying an effect by a single operation of pressingbutton A or button B, when button A or button B is depressed, theprocessing of the effect corresponding to the effect name enclosed bythe focus F in the effect display field 48 is executed. Therefore, ifthe effect name and its display sequence shown in the effect displayfield 48 do not match the user's intention, the amount that the focus Fmust be moved increases relatively to apply the desired effect, whichwill take much time to rotate the operation dial 126 b, preventing theuser from applying the desired effect at desired timing.

Thus, selecting “Set effect” on the GUI (see FIG. 9B) in the livedistribution mode makes it possible to set what effect from among manyeffects provided beforehand should be displayed in the above effectfield 48 in what order. Here, FIG. 11 shows a screen displayed on thedisplay section 124 when “Set effect” (see FIG. 9B) of the above GUI isselected. As shown in FIGS. 11A, 11B and 11C, three setting screens,button A, button B and preset button, are provided. The screen toperform the effect setting corresponding to button A in FIG. 11A shows abutton A effect list field 50 a that lists many effect names providedand to be temporarily assigned, that is, effect names corresponding tobutton A on the left side of the screen and a registration list field 52to be displayed in the above effect display field 48 on the right sideof the screen. The registration list field 52 displays button Aregistration list field 52 a, button B registration list field 52 b andpreset registration field 52 c. On the button A setting screen, thedisplay colors of the button B registration list field 52 b and thepreset registration field 52 c are different from the display color ofbutton A registration list field 52 a, which allows the user to easilyrecognize the currently settable registration field. In the button Aeffect list field 50 a, the user can scroll up and down many providedand executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thebutton A effect list field 50 a and drags the selected effect into thebutton A registration list field 52 a. Thus, the user can make a settingin such a way that desired effects corresponding to button A aredisplayed in the effect display field 48 in a desired order.

When effects corresponding to button B are set, the screen shown in FIG.11B is displayed. On the right side of this screen, a button B effectlist 50 b that displays many effect names provided and consecutivelyapplied, that is, effect names corresponding to button B is displayed.In the button B effect list 50 b, the user can scroll up and down manyprovided and executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thebutton B effect list field 50 b and drags the selected effect into thebutton B registration list field 52 b. Thus, the user can make a settingin such a way that desired effects corresponding to button B aredisplayed in the effect display field 48 in a desired order.

When preset effects are set, the screen shown in FIG. 11C is displayed.On the right side of this screen, a preset effect list 50 c thatdisplays many effect names provided and consecutively applied isdisplayed. In this preset effect list 50 c, the user can scroll up anddown many provided and executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thepreset effect list field 50 c and drags the selected effect into thepreset registration list field 52 c. Thus, the user can set preseteffects.

When carrying out live distribution, the user generally has anestablished concept of the types of effects to be applied, timing andorder of applying those effects, etc. Therefore, if a setting is madewith consideration given to the types of effects to be applied and orderin which effects are applied based on the user's concept, it is possibleto perform effect processing that will reproduce the user's concept morefaithfully through simple operations in live distribution.

The user PC 106 can store an application program provided with the fivefunctions of the capture mode, the upload mode, the Web check mode, thelive reservation mode and the live distribution mode as described abovein the hard disk 123 and execute the above processing function. Inaddition, the user PC 106 also stores a program to execute processingfor automatically incorporating a reservation setting information file,which will be described later, when a reservation for live distributionis made and a program to execute processing for communication/connectionwith the streaming server 102. The functions obtained by executing theseprograms will be described in detail later.

A-3. Server Reservation Control Apparatus

As described above, when the user PC 106 performs live distribution as abroadcaster, it is necessary to make a reservation for use of thestreaming server 102 in the time zone for carrying out live distributionin a personal casting service provided by the content supply system 100.Next, the server reservation control center 101 on the service providerside who controls the reservation for use of the streaming server 102will be explained with reference to FIG. 12.

As shown in FIG. 12, the server reservation control center 101 comprisesa live casting server 150, a reservation database 151, a user database152, a network time protocol (NTP) server 153, a network interface 154and a database server 155, all of which are mutually connected with alocal area network (LAN). Here, each component of the server reservationcontrol center 101 exchanges various kinds of data with the user PC 106and the client PC 107 which are connected to the Internet 103 via thenetwork interface 154, and the streaming server 102 connected to adedicated line 109 (see FIG. 1).

The live casting server 150 is a server that performs processing tocontrol the overall service such as live distribution reservationprocessing, billing processing, service member registration processingin a personal casting service. The live casting server 150 stores Webpages for registration for the user to acquire the right to utilize thisservice, for reservation reception to receive the reservation from theuser, for reservation confirmation for the user to confirm or change thereservation and for referencing a program table to reference programtable, etc. distributed by the live distribution to the client PC 107,in the hard disk. When receiving a request from the user PC 106 orclient PC 107, the user PC 106 or client PC 107 is allowed to browse theWeb page corresponding to this request. The Web page provided for thelive casting server 150 will be explained with reference to the displayscreen displayed on the browser screen of the PC that has requested thebrowsing of the Web page.

By using a PC such as the user PC 106 or client PC 107, which isconnectable to the Internet 103, the user enters a URL to identify thetop page (homepage) of a Web page of the live casting server 150 andmakes a request for browsing, then a Web page display screen shown inFIG. 13 appears on the requesting PC. By the way, the method ofrequesting the browsing of the top page of a Web page of the livecasting server 150 also includes a method of jumping to a desired pageby clicking a link button on another homepage, in addition to the methodof entering the URL described above.

As shown in FIG. 13, this homepage shows link buttons including “Memberregistration”, “What is personal casting TV?”, “Today's live”, “Programguide”, “My channel”, “Live distribution reservation”, “Program pickup”,“Image Station”, in addition to the columns for entering a user ID andpassword to log in. When any link button is clicked, a Web pagehyper-linked to the link button is displayed on the PC side.

When “Member registration” is clicked, a Web page for registering aperson as a member who is eligible to the personal casting serviceappears on the display screen of the PC, which will be described indetail later.

Then, when “What is personal casting TV?” is clicked, a screen as shownin FIG. 14 appears on the display screen of the PC. As shown in thisfigure, this Web page screen shows a description urging memberregistration for utilizing the personal casting service and a linkbutton “To registration page” to jump to the “Member registration” Webpage. Moreover, this display screen includes outlined descriptions ofthe personal casting service and processing procedure, etc.

Then, when “Today's live” is clicked, a screen as shown in FIG. 15appears on the display screen of the PC. As shown in this figure, thisWeb page screen shows live programs to be distributed today and showsthe current time set on the service provider side (a reservation isexecuted based on this time) at the top and a list of information aboutitems such as distribution time, title, distributor and outline, etc. ofa special program and a private program to be distributed today below(the example in the figure describes the names of items displayed, butthe contents of the above items (distributor name and title, etc.) areactually displayed)). This “special program” means content supplied by acompany and the “private program” means content supplied by anindividual user like the user PC 106. Furthermore, a program describedas “On-demand” instead of distribution time is an on-demand distributionprogram for storing distribution data in the live casting server 150beforehand and distributing it in response to the request of the clientPC 107, etc, not a distribution program for live-distribution.Furthermore, “Capacity” in a private program is information indicating afixed number of clients who can receive the content of the program, and“OPEN” and “CLOSE” are information indicating whether the content can bedistributed at present in response to the request from the client takingthe fixed capacity into consideration (“OPEN”: distributable, “CLOSE”:not distributable).

Here, “Title” in the list of programs is a link button and when thisbutton is clicked, detailed information of the live program of theclicked “Title” appears as shown in FIG. 16. On this screen, when theuser enters a correct password and clicks on the “Replay” button 175while the program is distributed, a distribution request for the liveprogram is sent to the streaming server 102 over the Internet 103. Thisallows the client PC 107 that has sent the distribution request toreceive content of the live program by streaming from the streamingserver 102 and reproduce this in real time. By the way, reproducing thecontent distributed by streaming by the streaming sever 102 in real timerequires replay software to replay this in real-time (e.g., “Realplayer” (Real Networks Co., Ltd.) and “Windows Media Player” (MicrosoftCorporation), etc.). Therefore, if a PC that sends a distributionrequest does not store such replay software, the “Replay software”button 176 is clicked. This makes it possible to download the Replaysoftware to the PC and to reproduce and view the content distributed bystreaming by the streaming server 102 in real time on the PC.

Then, when “Program guide” is clicked, a screen as shown in FIG. 17appears on the display screen of the PC. As shown in this figure, thisWeb page screen shows a monthly calendar including the present day andshows a list of programs to be distributed on the date indicated by theoutline characters on a colored background of the calendar. This list ofprograms displayed is the same as “Today's live” described above (seeFIG. 16). On this display screen, clicking a desired date on the monthlycalendar shows a program list for that relevant date. The screensdisplayed for “Today's live” and “Program guide” are not limited tothose shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. 17, but may be displayed in a displayformat like a TV column of newspaper in which a matrix-like programdisplay filed is provided showing times on the vertical axis andchannels on the horizontal axis and a title name, the contents and adistributor name, etc. are displayed in the matrix, and this displayformat can be set arbitrarily.

Then, “My channel” is a Web page provided for each user who has theright to become a transmitter of live distribution (a user registered asa premium member, which will be described later) and when “My channel”is clicked, a Web page, etc. to confirm the contents of reservation oflive distribution at this time is displayed. Furthermore, when “Livedistribution reservation” is clicked, a Web page to make a reservationfor live distribution is displayed, but these will be described indetail later. By the way, users who are not members have no user ID orpassword, and cannot perform log-in processing such as entering the userID and password. When “My channel” or “Live distribution reservation” isclicked on the PC of a user who has not performed such log-inprocessing, a jump is not made to the corresponding Web page but to“What is personal casting TV?” where the user is urged to register as amember.

Then, “Program pick up” is a Web page to present programs, etc.recommended by the service provider and when this is clicked, detailedinformation (see FIG. 16) on the program recommended by the serviceprovider appears.

The live casting server 150 stores the above-described Web pages in itshard disk.

Returning to FIG. 12, the reservation database 151 stores information onthe reservation situation of live distribution and billing resultingfrom the reservation. As shown in FIG. 18, the reservation database 151stores the reservation contents information including the reservationtime zone, channel to be used, band to be used (bit per second (bps)),etc. for each reservation, in association with user ID to identify theuser, billing flag information to indicate whether the reservation isestablished and billing is possible at this time and reservation ID usedfor authentication of the time when the reserved distribution is carriedout. Each item of these information will be written during reservationprocessing, etc. by the live casting server 150 which will be describedlater and each item of information stored with in the authenticationprocessing by the database server 155 which will be described later willbe referenced.

The user database 152 stores information on registered users who havethe right to utilize the personal casting service and stores informationincluding a name, user ID, password, e-mail address, address, telephonenumber (cellular phone and facsimile number), credit card number andexpiring date of the credit card for billing, for each registered user.Each item of these information will be written during memberregistration processing by the live casting server 150 which will bedescribed later and referenced in the reservation processing by the livecasting server 150 which will be described later.

The NTP server 153 controls time information in the apparatuses of theservice providers including this server reservation control center 101and the streaming server 102 together. The live casting server 150 andstreaming server 102 acquire the time information from the NTP server153 and control the live distribution start time and end time based onthe acquired time information. This is because a service like livedistribution must operate under precise time control. Unifying thereference times on the service providers prevents the server reservationcontrol center 101 and the streaming server 102, which are the apparatuson the service provider side, from operating based on different times.Furthermore, the time of the user PC 106, which is the user sideapparatus, may be different from the time of the service provider, andif the user of the user PC 106 fails to recognize this time difference,there may be a difference between the start time and end time of livedistribution specified by the service provider and the start time andend time of live distribution recognized by the user. Therefore, thereservation processing by the live casting server 150 notifies the userPC 106 of this time difference, and this time difference is calculatedbased on the time information acquired by the live casting server 150from the NTP server 153.

When the user PC 106 or another illegal PC sends a connection request touse the streaming server 102 to the access port of the dedicated serverconnection network 108, the database server 155 receives the requestfrom an access server (not shown) of the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 and performs authentication processing as to whether theaccessing PC is a PC that has made a valid reservation (that is, user PC106) or not. If that PC has been authenticated to be the valid PC in theabove authentication processing, a communication/connection between thestreaming server 102 and the user PC 106 is established and the user PC106 requests the streaming server 102 to execute streaming distributionprocessing. In this case, the streaming server 102 requests the databaseserver 155 for authentication processing to authenticate whether the PCsending the distribution request is a PC that has a valid reservation.When receiving such a request from the streaming server 102, thedatabase server 155 also performs authentication processing toauthenticate whether it is a PC that has a valid reservation. Thisauthentication processing is performed by referencing the reservationdatabase 151. The two kinds of authentication processing above will beexplained in detail later.

A-4. Streaming Server

Then, the streaming server 102 shown in FIG. 1 receives content datasuch as motion picture data sent from the user PC 106 having theabove-described valid reservation via the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108, etc. and distributes this by streaming to the client PC 107that has requested for a distribution over the Internet 103.

The streaming server 102 can distribute a plurality of contentsimultaneously. That is, the streaming server 102 has a plurality ofchannels so that a plurality of distributors can distribute content bythe live distribution using the streaming server 102 in the same timezone. This streaming server 102 has a preset number of people who canreceive distribution, transmission band (64 kbps or 28.8 kbps, etc.) andservice fee, etc. for each channel and the user who distribute contentusing the streaming server 102 can select a channel to be reservedtaking into account the above settings.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 performs streaming distributionprocessing of content sent from the live distributor with the user PC106 as described above, and stores commercial content, etc. to bedistributed during a free time zone with no reservation or intervalsbetween programs, to distribute the commercial content in such free timezones.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 controls the distribution timezone and restriction on the number of client PCs 107 which is to receivecontent, according to the contents of reservation permitted to the userPC 106 by the server reservation control center 101. This processingwill be described later.

A-5. Communication Path Between Streaming Server And User PC For LiveDistribution

As shown in FIG. 1, the streaming server 102 is connected to thededicated server connection network 108 and when live distributiondescribed above is performed, the user PC 106 is connected to thestreaming server 102 via the telephone network 104 and dedicated serverconnection network 108. The dedicated server connection network 108 is adedicated network provided to carry out the live distribution in thepersonal casting service provided by this content supply system 100.

Here, while communication/connection between the streaming server 102and user PC 106 is possible via the Internet 103, this content supplysystem 100 has the dedicated server connection network 108 to beconnected to the streaming server 102 in order to secure thetransmission path and transmission band of content data from the user PC106 to the streaming server 102. Such a dedicated network is used forthe following reasons. In order for the user PC 106 to be connected tothe Internet 103, the user PC 106 needs to be connected to an Internetservice provider (hereinafter referred to as “ISP”) with which the userPC 106 has contracted, via the telephone network 104. Such an ISPreceives connections not only from registered members of this personalcasting service but also from PCs of a great number of Internet users.Therefore, when a great number of Internet users connects to the ISP andthereby to the Internet 103, the user PC 106 can no longer secure atransmission band necessary for the live distribution. Moreover, theuser PC 106 may not be able to be connected to the ISP for a reason whythe line is busy. Data transmission using the Internet 103 has theproblem of a deteriorated connection environment as described above,while carrying out live distribution requires a communication path withthe streaming server 102 at a desired bit rate to be secured for adesired duration of time. The above problem may prevent a normal servicefrom being supplied. Therefore, the content supply system 100 preventsthe above problem by providing the dedicated server connection network108 so as not to use the Internet 103.

The dedicated server connection network 108 is provided with a greatnumber of lines for connection to the streaming server 102. The numberof lines provided for the dedicated server connection network 108 isgreater than the maximum number of users who can connect to thestreaming server 102 in the same time zone (e.g., if the maximum numberof users who are allowed to connect is 10, the number of lines is 20).This is for the following reason. As described above, the access serverof the dedicated server connection network 108 requests the databaseserver 155 (see FIG. 12) to perform authentication processing on the PCthat has requested for connection in order to authenticate whether thePC that has requested for the connection has a legal reservation. If thePC is judged to have no legal reservation in this authenticationprocessing, the call from the PC requesting for the connection isimmediately cut. Therefore, while any illegal PC cannot use the line ofthe dedicated server connection network 108, one line remains busy whilethe above authentication processing is in progress. For this reason, ifthe maximum number of users allowed to connect is equal to the number oflines provided, an illegal user may make a great number of callssimultaneously to the access port of the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 for the purpose of interference with the personal castingservice, etc., which will prevent PCs of users with a legal reservationfrom connecting. Therefore, providing lines exceeding the maximum numberof users as shown above reduces the possibility that the service will beinterfered by illegal users.

Furthermore, this personal casting service allows connection to thestreaming server 102 a predetermined time before the distribution starttime based on the reservation, making it possible to complete connectionprocessing such as authentication before the time at which thedistribution is started and to perform live distribution at the reserveddistribution start time. Therefore, if reservation times of differentusers are continuous, the following problem may occur. That is, theconnection of a user receiving a distribution who reserved a previoustime zone may overlap the connection after a predetermined time beforedistribution is started, by the user who reserved a posterior time zone,and the number of lines equal to the maximum number of users who canreceive distribution are not enough. Thus, providing lines twice themaximum number of users can handle even the case where the connection bythe user who reserves the preceding time zone overlaps the connection bythe user who reserves the posterior time zone.

Furthermore, the dedicated server connection network 108 to be connectedto the streaming server 102 can provide not only access ports for anetwork (e.g., public telephone network) of one carrier but also accessports accessible from networks (e.g., integrated services digitalnetwork (ISDN) or mobile telephone network) of a plurality of carriers.In this case, the user PC 106 selects a carrier to be connected, callsan access port corresponding to the network of the relevant carrier andestablishes a communication/connection with the streaming server 102 viathe dedicated server connection network 108.

A-6. Client PC

As described above, the content data sent from the user PC 106 to thestreaming server 102 in real time is distributed by streaming over theInternet 103 to the client PC 107 that has sent a request fordistribution to the streaming server 102. The client PC 107 can send adistribution request on the Web page (see FIG. 16) of theabove-described live casting server 150 and also directly send adistribution request to the streaming server 102 by entering the URL ofthe streaming server 102. This embodiment refers to the PC that sends adistribution request to the streaming server 102 and receivesdistribution by streaming from the streaming server 102 and these clientPCs 107 store an application program to reproduce content distributed bystreaming in real time (e.g., “Real player” (Real Networks Co. Ltd.),“Windows Media Player” (Microsoft Corporation), etc.) and can replay andview the distributed content data in real time by executing theapplication program in distribution.

B. Operation of Content Supply System

Then, the various processing operations in the content supply system 100having the above configuration to implement a live casting service willbe explained.

B-1. Member Registration

At first, when the user of the user PC 106 performs a live distributionusing the personal casting service, it is necessary to apply for memberregistration to the live casting server 150 of the server reservationcontrol center 101 to acquire the right to perform a live distributionutilizing this service. FIG. 19 shows a sequence flow chart of theprocessing operation of the user PC 106 and live casting server 150 whenapplying for this member registration. As shown in this figure, to applyfor member registration, the user PC 106 connects to the Internet 103and sends a request for browsing a Web page to the live casting server150 (see FIG. 12) (step Sa1). When the user PC 106 connects to theInternet 103, power to the user PC 106 is turned on firstly and then theabove-described application program is started. Then, by the userselecting the Web check mode, the screen as shown in FIG. 7A isdisplayed on the display section 124. In this Web check mode, the userenters a URL identifying the Web page of the live casting server 150 torequest for browsing.

When the user PC 106 sends a request for browsing a Web page to the livecasting server 150 in this way, the live casting server 150 sends theWeb page via the Internet 103 to the user PC 106 (step Sa2). The user PC106 that has received the Web page sent displays the Web page on thebrowser display screen 44 (step Sa3).

In the case of such a browsing request or Web page transmission, theuser PC 106 and live casting server 150 carry out the followingoperation and processing. At first, when the user PC 106 enters the URLof the live casting server 150 and sends a browsing request, the browserdisplay screen 44 displays the top page of the Web page stored in thelive casting server 150 as shown in FIG. 13. The user clicks “Memberregistration” to apply for member registration. This makes the CPU 120of the user PC 106 send a request for browsing the Web page to apply formember registration to the live casting server 150 via the Internet 103.Then, the live casting server 150 sends the member registration Webpage. Upon receiving this, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 displays themember registration screen as shown in FIG. 20 on the browser displayscreen 44.

As shown in FIG. 20, the member registration screen shows the names ofthe items to be entered for member registration and the entry column forentering the item. This personal casting service provides the abovedescribed function of the client PC 107, that is, two kinds of memberregistration: a general member who receives a service of receivingcontent by live distribution from the streaming server 102; and apremium member who can utilizes the service as a distributor whoperforms a live distribution in addition to the service of receiving thecontent. The member registration screen shows an input column 210 forgeneral/premium members and an input column 211 only for a premiummember.

In this display screen, the user who registers as a general member likethe user of the client PC 107, enters items of the input column 210. Themember registration input screen displays a Cancel button 212 thatcancels the contents entered, and an Enter button 213 to register withthe content entered and when the user clicks the Enter button 213, theCPU 120 sends the contents entered in the input column 210 asregistration information to the live casting server 150 via the Internet103.

On the other hand, when the user registers as a premium member, the userchecks the checkbox and enters items of the input column 210 and inputcolumn 211. When the user completes entries of these items and clicks onthe Enter button 213, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 creates aregistration information file having the same contents as that enteredin the above member registration input screen and sends this to the livecasting server 150 via the Internet 103 (step Sa4) and at the same timewrites and stores the registration information file in the hard disk 123in the user PC 106.

The live casting server 150 receives the registration information filecreated according to the contents entered of the user of the user PC 106over the Internet 103 as described above, checks the contents of theregistration information file received and decides whether to allow itto be registered (step Sa5). The processing contents is as follows. Atfirst, when there is no information on any item, that is, the user hasentered nothing in the item, etc., the user PC 106 is informed of thisand urged to reenter. Furthermore, the live casting server 150 accessesa credit check server of a credit company via the Internet 103 to checkwhether the credit card in the registration information file is valid,and permits the registration only when the credit card is valid.

When the registration is permitted, the live casting server 150 writesthe information of the items in the registration information file in theuser database 152 to carry out the registration processing (step Sa6).Furthermore, in the premium member registration processing, the livecasting server 150 creates a “My channel” Web page corresponding to theregistered user and stores in the hard disk.

When this registration processing is completed, the live casting server150 notifies the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 that the registrationprocessing has been completed (step Sa7) and the member registrationprocessing is completed.

B-2. Distribution Reservation

When the above described member registration processing is completed,the user of the user PC 106 can become a distributor who carries out alive distribution using the personal casting service and makes areservation for a distribution to the live casting server 150 toactually carry out the live distribution. In this personal castingservice, a reservation is established by the user making a reservationfor registration to the live casting server 150 and reconfirming thereservation to the live casting server 150 by a predetermined timebefore the reserved live distribution time (e.g., six hours before).Obliging the user who made the reservation to reconfirm the reservationpromotes the fulfillment and establishment of reservations and reducesfictitious reservations. Furthermore, this personal casting service setsa maximum number of frames (e.g., one frame corresponds to ten minutes)that a registered user can reserve a month and this prevents some usersfrom monopolizing this service.

B-2-1. Reservation Registration

Hereinafter, the processing operation by the user PC 106 and the livecasting server 150 when reservation registration is performed in such adistribution reservation will be explained with reference to FIG. 21that shows a sequence flow chart of the processing operation and displayscreens, etc. of the user PC 106.

As shown in FIG. 21, when a distribution reservation is made, the userturns on the power to the user PC 106 and starts the aforementionedapplication program. Then, the user selects the live reservation mode toopen the screen shown in FIG. 8A on the display section 124. In thislive reservation mode, the user operates the operation dial 126 b, etc.to select/determine “Jump for reservation”, which is a selection item ofthe GUI. This allows the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 to connect theInternet 103 and requests for browsing of the Web page to make areservation for a distribution (Web page of the time when “Livedistribution reservation” in FIG. 13 is clicked) to the live castingserver 150 (step Sb1). In this way, the user PC 106 can request forbrowsing of the Web page to make a reservation for a distribution byselecting/determining “Jump for reservation” using the function of theapplication program above, but the user PC 106 can also request forbrowsing of the Web page by entering a URL. More specifically, the userPC 106 can request for browsing of the Web page by entering a URL torequest for browsing of the homepage shown in FIG. 13, logging in withthe user ID and password entered and clicking the link button of “Livedistribution reservation”.

Once the user PC 106 requests for browsing the Web page for distributionreservation to the live casting server 150, the Web page is sent fromthe live casting server 150 to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103(step Sb2). The user PC 106 that has received the Web page shows the Webpage on the browser display screen 44 (step Sb3).

FIG. 22 shows a Web page for distribution reservation displayed on thebrowser display screen 44. As shown in this figure, this display screenshows a monthly calendar column 220, a reservation situation displaycolumn 221 that shows the reservation situation on the date expressed inoutline characters on a colored background on the calendar, areservation input column 222 that shows items to be entered by the userto make a reservation and the input field, a reservation button 223 toinstruct an application for a reservation and a cancel button 224 tocancel the inputted contents of the reservation input column 222.

On this display screen, the user clicks a desired date for reservationin the monthly calendar column 220. This allows the CPU 120 of the userPC 106 to instruct to display the clicked date in outline characters ona colored background on the calendar and request the live casting server150 over the Internet 103 to display the reservation situation of thedate. Upon reception of this request, the live casting server 150creates the data to display the reservation situation of the date atthis time by referring to the registered contents of the reservationdatabase 151 and sends the data to display the reservation situation ofthe requested date to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103. The CPU 120of the user PC 106 displays the reservation situation display column 221based on this data.

As illustrated, the reservation situation display column 221 displaysthe capacity of distribution, transmission band used, service fee,reservation situation per time (“Free” or “Reserved”) for each channeland the user determines the channel and time zone, etc. and enters itemsof the reservation input column 222 with reference to this reservationsituation display column 221. The capacity of distribution, thetransmission band to be used and the service fee are set for eachchannel beforehand and the user of the user PC 106, who is a contentdistributor, can select a channel that matches the desired service feeand capacity, etc. by referring to the preset information for eachchannel displayed in the reservation situation display column 221.

The items to be entered in the reservation input column 222 are“channel” to select a channel to be used, “reservation date/time” tospecify the date/time of reservation, “open level”, “title” to enter thetitle of the content, “genre” to enter the genre to which the contentbelong, “open of e-mail” to select whether to open the e-mail address ofthe content provider, “Open of Web” to select whether to open the URL ofthe Web page of the content provider, “password” to enter a password,“friend list”, “outline” to write an outline of the content in up to apredetermined number of characters (e.g., 20 characters) and “detail” towrite the detail of the content in up to a predetermined number ofcharacters (e.g., 200 characters).

The input item “open level” in the reservation input column 222 is theitem indicating the open level of content distribute based on thisreservation, that is, an item specified by the user who is a contentprovider to restrict the users of the content, and it is possible tospecify one of three levels “Public”, “Password” and “Secret” here.

“Public” specifies that the contents are totally opened and when“Public” is specified, users who have registered as general members canreceive the content by the content distribution based on the reservation(however, should be within the capacity).

“Password” restricts users who can receive the content based on thereservation and is the open level in which only allows the users who canenter a valid password to receive content. When the user selects“Password”, the user needs to enter a password to be used when contentis received.

Then, “Secret” is also the open level in which the users who haveentered a valid password can receive content as in the case of“Password”. When the user selects “Secret”, too, the user needs to entera password to be used. When “Password” or “Secret” is selected,information on the distribution time of the program and the password,etc. is sent to the e-mail addresses specified in “friend list” whichwill be described later.

Furthermore, “Password” and “Secret” are the same in that both allowcontent to be supplied to only specific users, but different in thatwhen “Password” is selected, the program based on this reservation isincluded in the Web pages of “Today's live” and “Program guide”, whilein the case of “Secret”, the program is not shown on the Web pages andthe fact that the content will be distributed is not opened. When“Secret” is selected, the fact that the content will be distributed issent only to those who have e-mail addresses included in the “Friendlist” which will be described later.

The user can select any one of the three open levels “Public”,“Password” and “Secret” taking into account the content to bedistributed. For example, when the user wants to perform a contentdistribution to a specific few people, it is desirable to select achannel with small capacity (inexpensive) from the economicalstandpoint, but if this is opened to all people, and a distributionrequest is made from people other than the specific people, the specificpeople may not receive the content distribution because of the capacityrestriction. Therefore, in this case, selecting “Password” or “Secret”makes it possible to perform content distribution to specific peoplereliably and economically.

The input item “Friend list” in the reservation input column 222 is thecolumn to enter e-mail addresses of people who the user of the user PC106 wants to be notified that the content will be distributed in a timezone and with a channel based on the reservation. The live castingserver 150 sends e-mail including various kinds of information toreceive the content based on the relevant reservation, to the enterede-mail addresses, which will be described later.

When the entries of the items of the reservation input column 222 arecompleted and the reservation button 223 is clicked, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 creates a desired reservation information file with the samecontents as the inputted contents of the reservation input column 222and sends this desired reservation information file to the live castingserver 150 over the Internet 103 (step Sb4).

The live casting server 150 receives the desired reservation informationfile created according to the contents inputted by the user of the userPC 106 over the Internet 103 and sends a Web page to reconfirm whetherthe content of the received desired reservation information file isacceptable (step Sb5). In this way, the display screen of the user PC106 shows a display prompting to confirm the desired reservationinformation as shown in FIG. 23. In this case, the display screen alsoshows the service fee of the service based on the reservation, thee-mail address of the sender of the reservation setting information tobe sent from the live casting server 150 to the user PC 106 later (thise-mail address is the e-mail address entered by the user at the time ofmember registration), etc, for confirmation. Moreover, as describedabove, the user who reserved the live distribution is obliged toreconfirm the reservation a predetermined time before the distributiontime (e.g., six hours before) based on the reservation and the displayscreen also shows messages to notify the user of this and how toreconfirm.

When the user agrees to the contents displayed on the confirmationscreen, then the user clicks on the Agree button 240 and when the userdoes not agree to the contents displayed on the confirmation screen,then the user clicks on the Cancel button 241. Once the Cancel button241 is clicked, this intention is sent to the live casting server 150,and the live casting server 150 discards the desired reservationinformation file and displays a reservation input screen shown in FIG.22 on the display screen of the user PC 106 and prompts for a reentry.On the other hand, when the Agree button 240 is clicked, the CPU 120sends this intention to the live casting server 150 over the Internet103 (step Sb6).

When the Agree button 240 is clicked, the live casting server 150 checksthe contents of the desired reservation information file and judgeswhether the reservation should be permitted (step Sb7). The live castingserver 150 checks whether the inputted contents are sufficient andconfirms whether there is any free space in the desired reservation timezone of the desired channel and further checks whether the user whorequested the reservation has made a reservation exceeding the setnumber of frames. More specifically, it has already been mentioned abovethat this live casting service sets the maximum number of frames (e.g.,one frame corresponds to ten minutes) that each registered user canreserve a month. Therefore, in checking as to whether the reservationshould be permitted, it is judged whether the number of frames alreadyreserved by the user for one month exceeds the set number of frames, andif it exceeds the set number of frames, the reservation is notpermitted. On the other hand, if the number of frames already reservedby the user for that month is smaller than the set number of frames, itis judged that the check result has no problem and if other checkresults have no problem, the reservation is permitted. In this way, inorder to check the number of frames reserved by the user for one month,the user database 152 stores the reservation situation from at least onemonth ago until the present day for each user registered as a premiummember.

When a reservation is permitted, the live casting server 150 creates areservation ID only used for authentication of the time when thereserved distribution is executed based on the reservation and writesand registers the reservation time zone, channel to be used, band to beused (bit per second (bps)), reservation content information includingmail addresses of the friend list, etc., user ID to identify the userwho has reserved and the created reservation ID, in the reservationdatabase 151 (see FIG. 18) based on the contents of the desiredreservation information file (step Sb8). By the way, at the time of thisreservation registration, the billing flag information indicatingwhether billing is possible indicates that billing is “not possible” andwhen a reconfirmation is made and the reservation is established later,this billing flag is rewritten as “possible”. Moreover, the live castingserver 150 adds and writes the information on the reservation to the Webpage of “my channel” corresponding to the user who made the reservation.Furthermore if the open level in the reservation is “Public” or“Password”, the live casting server 150 updates the Web page to includethe program based on this reservation on the Web pages of “Today's live”and “Program guide”. That is, the information that the contentdistribution based on the reservation will be performed is stored asinformation that can be browsed. In this case, it is possible to browsethe Web page with the client terminal apparatus 107, etc. over theInternet 103 and know that the live distribution will be performed basedon the reservation. That is, not only when “Public” is set but also when“Password” is set, it is possible to browse the Web page including theinformation that the live distribution based on the reservation will beperformed and any third party can know that the live distributionexists. On the other hand, when “Secret” is set, the live casting server150 does not include any information on the live distribution to becarried out based on this reservation, on the Web pages of “Today'slive” and “Program guide”. Therefore, for the live distribution with“Secret”, only specific people who have received e-mail transmittedwhich will be described later and who have browsed are allowed to knowthat the live distribution will be performed.

Once such reservation registration processing is completed, a Web pageurging the user to agree to the copyright control and prohibitions, etc.when the service is used is sent to the user PC 106 and displayed on thedisplay screen of the user PC 106. Then, upon reception of agreementfrom the user PC 106, the live casting server 150 sends a Web pageinforming of the completion of the reservation procedure exceptreconfirmation to the user PC 106. FIG. 24 shows a reservation procedurecompletion screen displayed on the display screen of the user PC 106. Asshown in this figure, this reservation procedure completion screendisplays a message urging the user to reconfirm. If the “OK” button 245is clicked, the reservation procedure except reconfirmation is completedand hereinafter, the live casting server 150 sends an e-mail about thereservation including the reservation ID created, to the user PC 106(step Sb9).

B-2-2. Reconfirmation

As described above, this personal casting service requires the user toreconfirm the reservation six hours before the reserved distribution isexecuted and if the user fails to reconfirm, the reservation is forciblycanceled. Therefore, the user who has acquired the reservation ID via ane-mail from the live casting server 150 must reconfirm the reservationusing the user PC 106 to ensure the reservation. The reservationprocedure until the reservation ID above is received can be done using aPC different from a PC to be used for the live distribution, but the PCused for live distribution must be the PC used for reconfirmation. Thefollowing explanation assumes that a reconfirmation will be made usingthe user PC 106. The processing operations by the user PC 106 and livecasting server 150 when a reconfirmation is made will be explained withreference to FIG. 25.

When making a reconfirmation, the user turns ON the power to the user PC106 and starts the application program (when power is OFF). Then, theuser selects a live reservation mode to display the screen shown in FIG.8A on the display section 124. In this live reservation mode, the useroperates the operation dial 126 b, etc. to select/determine thereservation to be reconfirmed from the reservation list (it may includeonly one item) displayed in the reservation list area 46. Then, the CPU120 of the user PC 106 connects to the Internet 103 and sends a requestfor browsing the Web page “My channel” corresponding to the user to thelive casting server 150 (step Sb10). In this way, the user PC 106 cansend a request for browsing the Web page to make a reservation fordistribution using the function provided by the application program. Therequest for browsing the Web page can also be sent by entering a URL.More specifically, the request for browsing the Web page can be sent byentering a URL to send a request for browsing the homepage shown in FIG.13, entering the user ID and password to log in and clicking the linkbutton of “My channel”.

When a request for browsing the “My channel” Web page is sent from theuser PC 106 to the live casting server 150 in this way, the live castingserver 150 sends the Web page to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103(step Sb11). Upon reception of the Web page sent, the user PC 106displays the Web page on the browser display screen 44 (step Sb12).

FIG. 26 shows the “My channel” Web page displayed on the browser displayscreen 44. As shown in this figure, this display screen shows areservation list 250, which is a list of reservations currently made bythe user to the live casting server 150, a link button 251 to jump tothe Web page to check the number of audiences of the program distributedby the user in the past, etc. and a link button 252 to jump to the Webpage to modify the registration information file (see FIG. 20) of theuser registered in the user database 152. This display screen alsoincludes descriptions of the method of canceling or modifying areservation, and this personal casting service requires the user tocancel the reservation if the user changes the reservation contents suchas the channel or date/time, and then to take necessary steps to make adistribution reservation again, and this process is described in thisdisplay screen. On the other hand, items including the title andoutline, other than the channel and date/time, can be changed withoutcanceling the reservation.

The reservation list 250 shows for each reservation “reservationdate/time”, “channel”, “title”, a status item indicating whether thisreservation is “waiting for a reconfirmation” or “reconfirmed”, and the“cancel” button to be clicked when the reservation is cancelled (onereservation in the figure).

If no reconfirmation of the reservation has been made yet, “waiting forreconfirmation” is displayed in the status item as shown in the figureand if this page is opened after a reconfirmation of the reservation hasbeen made, “reconfirmed” is displayed. In the case of “waiting forreconfirmation”, if this is clicked, the CPU 120 sends a request forbrowsing the reconfirmation screen to the live casting server 150 overthe Internet 103. In response to this request, the live casting server150 sends the reconfirmation Web page to the user PC 106 over theInternet 103 and the screen shown in FIG. 27 appears on the user PC 106.

As shown in this figure, the reconfirmation screen displays contents ofitems including “user ID”, “channel”, “reservation date/time”, “openlevel”, “title”, “genre”, “open of e-mail”, “open of Web”, “password”,“friend list”, “outline” and “detail”, set in reservation. This displayscreen further shows the column for entering a reservation ID and amessage urging the user to enter a reservation ID and make areconfirmation.

To reconfirm the reservation, the user enters the reservation IDincluded in the e-mail sent from the live casting server 150 in thereservation procedure described above and clicks on the reconfirmationbutton 261. On the other hand, to go back to the “my channel” screenincluding the reservation list 250, etc. (see FIG. 26), the user clickson the Return button 262.

Here, when the reconfirmation button 261 is clicked on thereconfirmation display screen in FIG. 27, setting information toestablish communication/connection with the streaming server 102 in thelive distribution is automatically set in the PC and a message isdisplayed prompting to make a reconfirmation on the corresponding PC,that is, the PC which will carry out the live distribution.

When the reconfirmation button 261 is clicked, the CPU 120 of the userPC 106 informs the live casting server 150 of this reconfirmation overthe Internet 103 (step Sb13).

As described above, the live casting server 150 that has received thereconfirmation sent from the user PC 106 refers to the reservationdatabase 151 and user database 152 and creates a reservation settinginformation file shown in FIG. 28 on this reservation (step Sb14). Outof the information about each reservation registered in the reservationdatabase 151, the live casting server 150 erases the data about thereservation from the reservation database 151 after six hours before thedistribution start time based on the reservation and cancels thereservation. That is, the reservation-related data is erased from thereservation database 151 six hours before the distribution start time.Therefore, if the live casting server 150 receives the reconfirmationafter six hours before the distribution start time, the data about thereservation no longer exist even if the reservation database 151 isreferenced. In this case, the live casting server 150 sends a Web pageposting a message “Reservation has been canceled because reconfirmationis not executed. To make a reservation, please redo the distributionreservation procedure”, etc. to the user PC 106.

On the other hand, if the live casting server 150 receives thereconfirmation by six hours before the distribution start time, the livecasting server 150 creates reservation setting information. As shown inFIG. 28, the reservation setting information file created by the livecasting server 150 includes “reservation ID”, “live distributionreservation date/time”, “server accessible time”, “access telephonenumber”, “access server information”, “address information fordistribution request”, “transmission band”, “title”, “outline”, “openlevel”, “friend list address information” and “distribution requestpassword”.

“Reservation ID” describes the reservation ID created about thereservation, “live distribution reservation date/time” describes thereserved distribution start time and end time. “Server accessible time”describes the time zone during which access to the streaming server 102is permitted to carry out a live distribution. This example describesthat access to the streaming server 102 is permitted from three minutesbefore the distribution start time until three minutes after thedistribution end time.

“Access telephone number” describes the telephone numbers of accessports of the dedicated server connection network 108 to connect to thestreaming server 102 and this example describes the telephone numbers ofaccess ports of a plurality (four in this figure) carriers. In theprocedure for actual connection to the streaming server 102, which willbe described later, the user selects any one of carriers to carry outprocessing of making a call to the telephone number of the access portfor the selected carrier.

“Access server information” describes items determined according to thechannel selected in this reservation such as “type of server” connectedwhen the channel is used, “server name”, “connection port”, “stream pathfor server”, etc. When a communication/connection between the user PC106 and the access port of the dedicated server connection network 108is established, the connection processing to use the channel reserved bythe streaming server 102 is carried out based on the description of this“access server information”.

“Address information for distribution request” describes URL informationused by the client PC 107 to connect to the streaming server 102 whenthe client PC 107 requests a stream distribution of the contents to besent by the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102. When a distributionof the content is requested, it is possible to allow the client PC 107to connect to the streaming server 102 using the URL over the Internet103.

“Transmission band” describes information which is determined accordingto the reserved channel and describes information on the transmissionband such as 64 kbps and 28.8 kbps, preset in the reserved channel.“Title”, “outline” and “open level” each describes the contentsregistered at the time of reservation (see FIG. 22 and FIG. 23). “Friendlist address information” describes e-mail addresses registered at thetime of reservation.

“Distribution request password” also describes the password informationregistered at the time of reservation. If “open level” is “Public”, thedistribution requesting side can request a distribution without enteringa password and in this case, the information of “distribution requestpassword” is not included in the reservation setting information file.

Thus, the reservation setting information file created by the livecasting server 150 includes information including the reservation IDused for authentication of the time of connection to the streamingserver 102, which will be described later, the telephone number andconnection port of the server, etc. to establish acommunication/connection with the streaming server 102. The reservationsetting information file is sent from the live casting server 150 to theuser PC 106 over the Internet 103. In this case, the reservation settinginformation file contains command information for automatically writingand incorporating the reservation setting information file into apredetermined area created in the hard disk 123 of the user PC 106 andcommand information for instructing the display of a message notifyingthat the automatic incorporation has ended normally or failed. As atechnology for automatically incorporating a file sent from the livecasting server 150, the distributor, to the user PC 106, the receiver,the technology of “ActiveX” (registered trademark of MicrosoftCorporation) can be used. When using this technology, the user PC 106needs to use “Internet Explorer” (Microsoft Corporation) which can use“ActiveX” as the browser software.

The live casting server 150 that has created the reservation settinginformation file in the form of text data, etc. including the variouskinds of data and commands above encrypts this file using an encryptionsystem such as data encryption standard (DES), etc. and sends thisencryption file together with the Web page that displays thereconfirmation completion screen to the user PC 106 over the Internet103 (step Sb15).

As described above, when the live casting server 150 sends the encryptedreservation setting information file and Web page, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 receives this and decrypts the reservation settinginformation file using the technology of “ActiveX”, automatically takesit in a predetermined area of the hard disk 123 according to the commandincluded in the file (step Sb16) and shows the reconfirmation completionscreen on the browser display screen 44 (step Sb17). Therefore, the userPC 106 stores a program to decrypt the above encryption to execute thisprogram when encrypting the reservation setting information file.Furthermore, when the CPU 120 writes the reservation setting informationfile in a predetermined area, the user PC 106 has a program to encryptand write the file according to a predetermined encryption system (DES,etc.) and by executing this program, the reservation setting informationfile is encrypted and saved. Therefore, normally, the user is notallowed to display and refer to the contents of the automaticallyincorporated reservation setting information file. This prevents theaccess port numbers of the dedicated server connection network 108 frombeing unnecessarily opened to many people and prevents illegal accessesto the access ports of the dedicated server connection network 108 withan intention of interfering with this service.

Here, FIG. 29 shows the reconfirmation completion screen displayed onthe browser display screen 44. As shown in this figure, this screenshows the current time of the service provider side and the time of theuser PC 106. The time of the service provider side is the timeinformation acquired from the NTP server 153 when the live castingserver 150 sends the Web page. On the other hand, the time of the userPC 106 shows the current time based on the clock of the user PC 106.Then, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 calculates the difference betweenthese times (in units of minutes) and if there is any difference, showsa message about the presence of the difference as shown in the figure.In this way, it is possible to notify the user of the user PC 106 of thetime difference from the service provider to call attention, or it isalso possible to store a time correction program to automaticallycorrect the time of the user PC 106 based on the time information of theservice provider side sent together with the Web page in the user PC 106and when the user PC 106 receives the reconfirmation completion screenWeb page as shown above, to correct the time of the user PC 106 based onthe time of the service provider side by the CPU 120 executing the timecorrection program. This allows the service provider side and the userPC 106 to have the same time, thus making it possible to smoothly carryforward the service of live distribution, which requires the accuracy intime.

Furthermore, the reconfirmation completion screen describes the specialitem to access the dedicated server connection network 108 using adialup router. When executing processing of communication/connectionwith the streaming server 102 to execute a live distribution, the userPC 106 is set to automatically call the access telephone number to theaccess port of the dedicated server connection network 108 described inthe reservation setting information file above (details will be givenlater). In this way, by the CPU 120 executing the program for automaticcalling, the user can automatically carry out communication/connectionprocessing without carrying out troublesome input operation such asentering telephone numbers. However, when the user PC 106 is connectedto the network via a dialup router, it is necessary to set theinformation to be connected to the dedicated server connection network108 via the dialup router. Thus, since it is not possible to performprocessing of automatical calling based on the telephone numberdescribed in reservation setting information file, it is necessary forthe user to manually set the telephone number, etc. of the access port.The special item is a description taking into account the necessity ofmanual setting when this dialup router is used and in this case, theaccess port number, login ID (reservation ID in this case) and passwordto be manually set by the user are displayed. In the example illustratedabove, connection using the dialup router is only permitted forconnection via integrated services digital network (ISDN), but thepresent invention is not limited to this.

When the user clicks the “OK” button 291 by confirming the display ofthe confirmation screen, the CPU 120 sends information that the “OK”button 291 has been clicked to the live casting server 150 over theInternet 103 (step Sb18) and the reconfirmation-related processing onthe user side completes. On the other hand, the live casting server 150that receives the information that the “OK” button 291 has been clickedrefers to the reservation database 151 and sends an e-mail notifyingthat there is a live distribution to the e-mail addresses registered inthe “friend list” of the reservation (step Sb19). FIG. 30 shows thecontents displayed on the display screen of the PC when the e-mail isopened. As shown in this figure, this e-mail shows information including“live distribution date/time”, “title”, “outline”, “URL for distributionrequest” (see “address information for distribution request” in FIG.28), “password” to request a distribution when the open level is“Password” or “Secret” (see “Distribution request password” in FIG. 28).If the user of the user PC 106 registers e-mail addresses of friends,etc. to whom the user wants the live distribution to be presented, atthe time of reservation, the friends are automatically informed of theinformation for receiving distribution. Thus, this eliminates thenecessity for the user who performs the live distribution to carry out atroublesome operation such as transmitting the information to receivelive distribution by telephone or creating an e-mail including therelevant information.

In the above explanation, the processing of sending the e-mail (see FIG.30) to the e-mail addresses registered in the “friend list” is performedafter the reconfirmation is completed, but transmission of the e-mailcan also be performed by the live casting server 150 when the processingof registering the reservation in the reservation database 151 based onthe reservation request file from the user (step Sb8 in FIG. 21) iscompleted. If an e-mail is sent at the time of completion of thereservation registration processing, those who have e-mail addresses canknow earlier that there is a live distribution. In this case, it is alsopossible to perform similar e-mail transmission processing again at thetime of completion of the reconfirmation.

In addition to sending e-mail as described above, when thereconfirmation-related processing finishes, the live casting server 150assumes that the reservation has been established, rewrites the billingflag information of the reservation database 151 about this reservationto “enabled” and performs billing processing about the reservation. Thebilling amount is calculated based on the service fee preset for eachchannel as described above. For example, when a reservation of using sixframes in a channel for which a service fee of ¥100 per one frame (tenminutes) is set is established, ¥600 is billed for the reservation.However, the actual billing processing is executed after confirming thatthe streaming server 102 is operating on the day of live distributionwithout problems.

The aforementioned explanation describes the case where the user PC 106is used which stores the program for encrypting and automaticallystoring the reservation setting information file sent from the livecasting server 150, but the PC that does not store such a program cannot automatically take in the file. In such a case, the followingtechnique is used to take in the reservation setting information fileinto the PC. At first, in the case of a PC that does not store theprogram and thus can not automatically take in the file, the informationthat automatic taking-in processing has failed is displayed on thedisplay screen of the PC. In addition to a message indicating thefailure, another message appears on the same screen which instructs theuser to return to the “my channel” (see FIG. 26) screen and click “waitfor reconfirmation” to request for browsing the reconfirmation screenagain. On the other hand, after sending the Web page indicating that theaforementioned reconfirmation has been completed to the user PC 106,when the live casting server 150 receives no reconfirmation “OK” fromthe user PC 106 and receives a request for a reconfirmation screen fromthe user PC 106, it judges that the user PC 106 has failed toautomatically read the reservation setting information file and sends aWeb page for downloading the reservation setting information file to theuser PC 106 over the Internet 103. As a result, the display screen onthe PC side shows a button for downloading the reservation settinginformation file, and clicking this button starts downloading of thereservation setting information file.

This is the flow of the distribution reservation processing operationfrom the issuing of a reservation request to the establishment of thereservation made by the completion of a reconfirmation. In this way,even after a reconfirmation is completed, the information such as genreand outline can be changed and the reservation can still be canceledeven after the reconfirmation is completed (in this case, the billingprocessing is performed because the billing flag information above is“enabled”). The processing operation when such a change or cancellationis made will be explained below with reference to the display contentsof the browser display screen 44 displayed on the display section 124 ofthe user PC 106.

At first, when a reconfirmed reservation is changed or canceled, anoperation to request for browsing the Web page corresponding to “Mychannel” is performed in the same way as the operation for thereconfirmation. Thus, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 carries outprocessing for connecting to the Internet 103 and requests the livecasting server 150 for browsing the “My channel” web page correspondingto the user.

When the user PC 106 requests the live casting server 150 for browsingthe “My channel” Web page, the live casting server 150 sends the Webpage to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103. Upon reception of the Webpage sent, the user PC 106 displays the Web page on the browser displayscreen 44.

FIG. 31 shows the reconfirmed “My channel” Web page displayed on thebrowser display screen 44. When compared with the display screen (seeFIG. 26) of “My channel” waiting for a reconfirmation, the reconfirmed“My channel” display screen differs in that “reconfirmed” is displayedin the status item of the reservation list 250 and a “change” linkbutton 310 is displayed.

To make a change, this “change” link button 310 is clicked. When the“change” link button 310 is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106sends information that the “change” link button has been clicked, to thelive casting server 150 over the Internet 103. In response to this, thelive casting server 150 sends a Web page for the change to the user PC106 over the Internet 103 and as a result, the browser display screen 44of the user PC 106 displays the screen shown in FIG. 32.

As shown in this figure, the change screen shows the currently setreservation contents and the items “genre”, “open of e-mail”, “open ofWeb”, “password”, “outline” and “detail” of these display contents canbe changed, and these are displayed in a different color from that ofitems that cannot be changed (reservation date/time, etc.).

The user overwrites the currently displayed setting contents with newcontents and clicks the Update button 321. If the contents are notchanged, the user clicks the Return button 322.

Then, when the user clicks the Update button 321, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 creates an information file with the changed contents andsends this to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Thus,the live casting server 150 updates the registration contents of thereservation database 151 based on the information file with the changedcontents and sends the Web page of the changed screen to the user PC 106over the Internet 103. As a result, the browser display screen 44displays the screen shown in FIG. 33.

As shown in this figure, in addition to a message stating that thechange has been accepted, the change completion screen shows the time ofthe service provider side, the time of the user PC 106 side and the timedifference between them and special items when the dialup router isused, in the same way as for the reconfirmation completion screen above(see FIG. 30). Clicking on the “OK” button 331 completes the change andreturns to the “My channel” screen shown in FIG. 31.

When the reservation is changed in this way, the live casting server 150sends an e-mail including the information that the reservation has beenchanged and the changed contents, etc. to the e-mail addressesregistered in the friend list. Thus, it is possible to automaticallyinform those who have the e-mail addresses of the friend list in thereservation changed contents for live distribution, without the need forthe user of the user PC 106 to inform by telephone that the reservationcontents for live distribution has been changed or to create an e-mailincluding such a message.

Next, the case where a reservation is canceled will be explained. As inthe case of changing a reconfirmation as described above, the operationfor requesting for browsing a Web page corresponding to “My channel” isperformed. Thus, the browser display screen 44 shows the reconfirmed “Mychannel” screen shown in FIG. 31.

To cancel a reservation, the user clicks the “Cancel” link button 311.When the “Cancel” link button 311 is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC106 sends the information that the “Cancel” link button has beenclicked, to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Inresponse to this, the live casting server 150 sends a Web page for thecancellation to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 and as a result,the browser display screen 44 of the user PC 106 displays thecancellation screen shown in FIG. 34.

As shown in this figure, the cancellation screen shows the currently setreservation contents and a “reservation cancellation” button 341 and“Return” button 342. The user clicks the “Reservation cancellation”button 341 to cancel the reservation and clicks the “Return” button 342otherwise.

Then, when the user clicks the “Reservation cancel” button 341, the CPU120 of the user PC 106 sends the information that the reservation willbe canceled, to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Thus,the live casting server 150 erases the registration contents in thereservation database 151 and sends the Web page of the cancellationcompletion screen to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103. As a result,the browser display screen 44 of the user PC 106 displays a messageshown in FIG. 35 notifying that the reservation has been canceled. Whenthe user clicks the “OK” button 343, cancellation is completed and the“My channel” screen in FIG. 31 appears.

When the reservation is canceled in this way, the live casting server150 sends e-mail including information that the reservation has beencanceled and live distribution will not carried out, to the e-mailaddresses registered in the friend list above. Thus, it is possible toautomatically inform people who have the e-mail addresses that livedistribution will not performed, without the need for the user of theuser PC 106 to inform by telephone that live distribution will notperformed or to create e-mail including such a message.

Furthermore, if the user wants to confirm the reservation contents afterthe reconfirmation above has been made, the user clicks the“Reconfirmed” button shown on the screen in FIG. 31. When the“Reconfirmed” button is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 sendsthe information to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Inresponse to this, the live casting server 150 sends the Web page forconfirming the reconfirmed reservation to the user PC 106 over theInternet 103. As a result, the browser display screen 44 of the user PC106 shows the currently set reservation contents, special items when thedialup router is used, a “Reenter PC connection setting” button 361 anda “Return” button 362 instructing a return to the “My channel” screen.

If the “Reenter PC connection setting” button 361 is clicked, the CPU120 of the user PC 106 sends the information to the live casting server150 over the Internet 103. In response to this, the live casting server150 sends the reservation setting information file (see FIG. 29) to theuser PC 106 over the Internet 103 again. As a result, the user PC 106automatically takes in the reservation setting information file.Retransmission of this reservation setting information file can beperformed when a PC different from the PC used to make a reconfirmationis used to perform the live distribution, etc.

B-3. Live Distribution

When the distribution reservation including the above reconfirmation iscompleted and the time for starting the reserved live distributioncomes, the user of the user PC 106 connects to the streaming server 102via the dedicated server connection network 108 and performs a livedistribution of the content. Then, the client PC 107 receives thecontent by requesting for the stream distribution of the content.

B-3-1. Content Transmission From User PC To Streaming Server

The processing operations by the user PC 106, the dedicated serverconnection network 108, the database server 155 (see FIG. 12) and thestreaming server 102 when the user PC 106 sends content to the streamingserver 102 by live distribution will be explained with reference to FIG.37 showing a sequence flow chart of the processing operation.

When a live distribution is performed, connection to the streamingserver 102 is permitted from five minutes before the start time of thereserved live distribution, and so the processing to establishcommunication/connection between the user PC 106 and the streamingserver 102 will be started at this time. The user prepares contentdistribution before the start time of the live distribution. Thepreparation for the content distribution includes the determination ofthe photographing position of the digital video camera 129 (see FIG. 3),effect setting processing in live distribution mode based on the conceptof the contents to be distributed (see FIG. 10 and FIG. 11), etc.

The user PC 106 of this embodiment stores a program to display a message“Live distribution will start soon” to the user a predetermined timebefore the reserved live distribution start time (e.g., ten minutesbefore) and as shown in FIG. 37, when the predetermined time before thestart time comes, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 executes this programto display the message “Live distribution will start soon” on thedisplay section 124 (step Sc1). This prevents the user from forgettingthe live distribution start time. Here, if the user PC 106 is not set tolive distribution mode in the aforementioned application, the CPU 120automatically executes this application program, automatically selectsthe live distribution mode in the application and displays the “Livedistribution mode” screen on the display section 124 (see FIG. 9A).

Then, when the time at which the start of connection to the streamingserver 102 is permitted (five minutes before the start time) comes, theCPU 120 of the user PC 106 executes the connection processing program toautomatically start the processing of communication/connection with thestreaming server 102. The communication/connection processing startedcan be fully automated or the user can only enter an instruction for thefinal connection start to automatically execute thecommunication/connection processing using this input as a trigger.

The processing by the CPU 120 according to the communication/connectionprocessing program decrypts the reservation setting information fileencrypted and stored in a predetermined registry (see FIG. 29) andcarries out the following communication/connection processing based onthe information described in the items “reservation ID” of this file,“server accessible time”, “access telephone number” and “access serverinformation”.

When the accessible start time indicated by “server accessible time”comes, the CPU 120 starts communication/connection processing, acquiresthe access port telephone number of the carrier preset by the user byreferring to the “access telephone number” of the reservation settinginformation file and carries out processing for calling the telephonenumber. The CPU 120 then sends the reservation ID to the access serverof the dedicated server connection network 108 and requests forcommunication/connection (step Sc2). Since the automatic callingprocessing is carried out in this way, the user need not enter thetelephone number, etc. In the case of live distribution in particular asdescribed above, using the user PC 106 in the modes shown in FIG. 3B orFIG. 3C by entering information, etc. with the keyboard 126 a is a verycomplicated operation, and therefore the processing of automatic callingprovides the user with a more comfortable content creation environment.

In order to authenticate whether the user PC 106 that has requested forconnection to the access port as described above belongs to a user whohas a valid reservation, the access server of the dedicated serverconnection network 108 sends the sent reservation ID to the databaseserver 155 of the server reservation control center 101 (step Sc3). Thedatabase server 155 that has received the reservation ID sent from thededicated server connection network 108 carries out authenticationprocessing by checking whether this reservation ID is registered in thereservation database 151 in the time zone that starts at the currenttime (step Sc4). If the reservation ID sent is registered in thereservation database 151, the access server judges that the user PC 106that has sent this reservation ID has a valid reservation and if thereservation ID sent is not registered in the reservation database 151 inthat time zone, the access server judges that the user PC 106 that hassent this reservation ID does not have a valid reservation.

In this authentication processing, only the reservation ID describedabove is used. This has the following effect. For example, when thereservation is authenticated using the user ID and password of eachmember of this service, even if it is confirmed that the user ID andpassword are valid and it is the member who has accessed, it is notpossible to distinguish whether the member has a reservation in thattime zone. Therefore, in the authentication processing, it is necessaryto authenticate whether the user is a member, then to check theregistration content of the reservation and to check whether the memberidentified with the user ID has a reservation in the time zone, whichmakes the authentication processing very complicated. In contrast, ifthe reservation ID used only for authentication for the reservationdescribed above is used, this reservation ID is the information thatonly the user can know, and therefore there is no need to authenticatethe user ID and it is possible to distinguish whether the user has avalid reservation through the simple authentication processing ofchecking whether the reservation ID is registered for the reservationfor the time zone corresponding to the accessed time.

The database server 155 that has performed the authentication processingusing the reservation ID as described above sends this authenticationresult to the access server of the dedicated server connection network108 (step Sc5).

When the authentication result from the database server 155 shows that auser has a valid reservation, the access server of the dedicated serverconnection network 108 permits the connection between the user PC 106and the streaming server 102, which establishes a PPP connection andcommunication/connection between them (step Sc6). On the other hand, inthe case where the authentication result shows a user does not have avalid reservation, the access server of the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 does not permit the connection between the user PC 106 andthe streaming server 102 and immediately cuts the call from the user PC106. Thus, by immediately cutting the call when it is judged that thecall is from an illegal user, the line is secured for users with a validreservation.

When connected to the streaming server 102 via the dedicated serverconnection network 108 as described above, the CPU 120 of the user PC106 sends a reservation ID to the streaming server 102 to request for alive distribution (step Sc7).

The streaming server 102 that has received the live distribution requestfrom the user PC 106 sends the sent reservation ID to the databaseserver 155 of the server reservation control center 101 to authenticatewhether the user PC 106 that has requested for the live distributionshows that a user has a valid reservation (step Sc8). Thus, the databaseserver 155 that has received the reservation ID sent from the streamingserver 102 carries out authentication processing by checking whetherthis reservation ID is registered in the reservation database 151 forthe time zone that starts from the current time (step Sc9). Thisauthentication processing is similar to that when a reservation ID issent from the access server of the dedicated server connection network108.

The database server 155 that has carried out authentication processingusing the reservation ID as described above sends this authenticationresult to the streaming server 102 (step Sc10).

In the case where the authentication result from the database server 155shows that a user has a valid reservation, the streaming server 102permits a live distribution by the user PC 106 and informs the user PC106 of this permission (step Sc11), acquires information about thereservation from the reservation database 151 (reservation time zone,channel, etc.) and controls live distribution based on this information.Thereby, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 displays a message, etc. tonotify the user that the live distribution has been permitted and urgesthe user to start distribution of the content. Upon reception of thisnotification, the user states to capture image with the digital videocamera 129 by operating the operation dial 126 b and operation buttons126 c, creates motion picture data obtained by applying real-time effectprocessing to the captured video, instructs the start of livedistribution and sends the created motion picture data to the streamingserver 102 in real time via the dedicated server connection network 108(step Sc12).

Thus, the streaming server 102 that has received the motion picturedata, which is the content sent from the user PC 106 distributes this bystreaming to the client PC 107 that has requested. In this case, if the“open level” of the live distribution (see FIG. 22, etc.) is “Public”,the streaming server 102 performs stream-distribution unconditionally inresponse to the distribution request, within the capacity of the channelon which the live distribution is carried out. On the other hand, if the“open level” is “Password” or “Secret”, the streaming server 102 urgesthe client PC 107 that has requested the distribution to enter apassword, and performs stream-distribution only for the client PC 107that has entered a valid password. The distribution request between thestreaming server 102 and the client PC 107 and the stream distributionprocessing operation will be described later.

Once the live distribution is started in this way, the streaming server102 sends the time information of the service provider side acquiredfrom the NTP server 153 and information on the number of the client PCs107 that receive the live distribution, that is, the client PCs 107 thathave requested distribution of the content, to the user PC 106. Then,the status window SW (see FIG. 9A) displayed on the display section 124of the user PC 106 shows information that the contents are on the air,information on elapsed time of distribution, time information of theservice provider side, time information of the user PC 106 side,information on the number of audiences, reservation start/end time,residual time information indicating the residual time of distribution,image size information and information on the distribution datatransmission rate, etc. With reference to the display of this statuswindow SW, the user can know various kinds of information on the livedistribution currently in progress. Especially, it is a matter ofconcern for the transmitter of contents how many people are viewing orlistening to the content and this also serves as a reference inselecting a channel (selecting the capacity) when live distribution isperformed the next time. Thus, the display of the number of audiencedescribed above can be significant to the user.

In this way, when content is sent from the user PC 106 to the streamingserver 102 and the user of the user PC 106 finishes live distributionbefore the reservation end time (time of the service provider side), theuser operates the operation dial 126 b (see FIG. 3) etc. toselect/determine “distribution start/end” of the GUI (see FIG. 9B) inthe live distribution mode. Thus, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106finishes the transmission of content and cuts the connection with thestreaming server 102 (step Sc13).

On the other hand, if the user personally finishes the contenttransmission before the reservation end time, the above processing isperformed, but if the content transmission from the user PC 106 to thestreaming server 102 is in progress when the reservation end time comes,the streaming server 102 finishes stream distribution processing of thecontent sent from the user PC 106 for the client PC 107 when thereservation end time comes. The streaming server 102 further forciblycuts the communication/connection with the user PC 106 at the time offinishing the connection with the user PC 106 indicated by “serveraccessible time” (see FIG. 29).

B-3-2. Stream Distribution of Content From Streaming Server To Client PC

What has been explained above is the detail of the content transmissionprocessing from the user PC 106, which is the transmitter terminal inlive distribution, to the streaming server 102 and the streaming server102 receives content transmission from the user PC 106 and performs astream distribution of the content to the client PC 107 that has sent arequest. This processing operation of contents stream distribution willbe explained with reference to the display screen, etc. of the client PC107 that sends a distribution request. In the following explanation,suppose the “open level” of the content distribution (see FIG. 22) is“Password” or “Secret” and this user of the client PC 107 knows thepassword to receive content.

When the client user of the client PC 107 sends a content distributionrequest, the client user turns on power to the client PC 107 and startsthe browser software. Then, the client user enters a URL to identify thetop page of the Web page of the live casting server 150 on the client PC107 and the CPU of the client PC 107 sends a request for browsing theWeb page to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Thus, thelive casting server 150 sends the top page of the Web page over theInternet 103 and as a result, the display screen of the client PC 107displays the screen shown in FIG. 13.

To receive a content distribution, the client user clicks a link buttonsuch as “Today's live” (see FIG. 15) or “program guide” (see FIG. 17).If the client user clicks the “program guide”, the client user furtherclicks on the current date on the calendar shown on the screen in FIG.17. Thus, the programs to be distributed on that day is displayed asshown in FIG. 15. Then, the client user clicks the “title” link buttonof the program whose distribution is to be requested from the programsdisplayed.

When the “title” link button is clicked in this way, the CPU of theclient PC 107 sends a request for browsing the Web page that displaysdetailed information of the “title” to the live casting server 150 overthe Internet 103. Then, the live casting server 150 sends the Web pagethat displays detailed information of the specified live program to theclient PC 107 over the Internet 103. As a result, the display screen ofthe client PC 107 displays the screen shown in FIG. 16.

If the client user requests for the distribution of the program with thedetailed information, the client user enters a password to obtain adistribution permission on the display screen shown in FIG. 16 andclicks the “Replay” button 175. In the case where the client PC 107 doesnot have real-time replay software, the client user clicks the “Replaysoftware” button 176 before clicking the “Replay” button 175 to downloadthe replay software beforehand.

Then, when the password is entered and the “Replay” button 175 isclicked, the CPU of the client PC 107 sends the entered password anddistribution request to the streaming server 102 over the Internet 103.The streaming server 102 sends the sent password to the database server155 and the database server 155 executes authentication processingwhether the password sent is valid with reference to the reservationdatabase 151, and sends the authentication result to the streamingserver 102.

When the authentication result above shows that the password sent is avalid password, the streaming server 102 judges whether to perform adistribution to the client PC 107 based on the capacity preset for thechannel used for the content distribution. More specifically, thestreaming server 102 compares the number of the client PCs 107 carryingout distribution of the content with the capacity and if contentdistribution is already being carried out to the same number of clientPCs 107 as the capacity, the streaming server 102 will perform nofurther distribution. That is, when content distribution is beingcarried out to the client PCs 107 as many as the capacity, at the timeof a distribution request, the streaming server 102 will not respond tothe distribution request.

On the other hand, if the number of client PCs 107 that receive thecontents is smaller than the capacity at the time of the distributionrequest, the streaming server 102 permits the distribution to therequesting client PCs 107 and the streaming server 102 performs streamdistribution of the content to the client PCs 107. Once streamdistribution is started in this way, the display screen of the client PC107 displays the replay display screen 390 of the replay software on theprogram detailed information display screen as shown in FIG. 38 and thecontent distributed by streaming is reproduced in real time on thereplay display screen 390. In this way, the users of the client PCs 107can reproduce and view and listen to the live-distributed content inreal time.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 counts the number of the clientPCs 107 that sent a request for distribution of the program and areactually receiving the distribution and sends this count result, thatis, information of the number of audiences to the content transmissionterminal (the user PC 106 in the above explanation).

In the explanation above, the client PCs 107 send a distribution requestto the streaming server 102 via the Web page of the live casting server150, but when a user who has an e-mail address set in the “Friend list”(see FIG. 22) sends a distribution request using the client PC 107, itis also possible to configure the system so that the user enters a URLdisplayed in “Address information for distribution request” of thee-mail sent from the live casting server 150 as described above (seeFIG. 30) or clicks on a URL being displayed. Carrying out such anoperation, the CPU of the client PC 107 starts processing of connectionto the destination specified by the URL, that is, the streaming server102 and can thereby request the streaming server 102 for distribution.

C. Modification

By the way, the present invention is not limited to the embodimentdescribed above, but can be modified in various manners as shown in thefollowing examples.

Modification 1

In the embodiment above, the streaming server 102 stream-distributes toa requesting client PC 107 the contents sent from the user PC 106. Thestreaming server 102 can also be configured so as to carry out arebroadcast service in such a manner that the contents sent from theuser PC 106 is stored in a medium such as a hard disk and is distributedas an on-demand program while the stream distribution processing iscarried out. In this case, it is possible to post the rebroadcastprogram on the “Today's program” Web page (see FIG. 15) and distributethe content to the requesting client PC 107.

Furthermore, the embodiment above performs content distribution bysending motion picture data taken with the digital video camera 129 ofthe user PC 106 in real time as content to the streaming server 102, andalso the user can perform content distribution by storing contentcreated beforehand using the user PC 106, etc. in the hard disk 123 andsending the content to the streaming server 102 at a reserveddistribution time. In order to send content in real time using the userPC 106 as described in the aforementioned embodiment, when sendingcontent such as the captured motion picture data, etc. to the streamingserver 102, it is also possible to store the content data in the harddisk 123 of the user PC 106. Then, content distribution may be performedby making a reservation for live distribution again and distributing thestored contents as a rebroadcast program from the user PC 106 to thestreaming server 102.

Modification 2

In the aforementioned embodiment, the streaming server 102 performs thestream distribution of the content sent from the user PC 106, to arequesting client PC 107. However, it is also possible to perform aservice consisting of not only performing the stream distributionprocessing but also storing the contents sent from the user PC 106, in amedium such as a hard disk, writing the content to another kind ofpublicly known package medium such as a compact disc-read only memory(CD-ROM) or a digital versatile disc-read only memory (DVD-ROM) anddistributing this content to the requesting user. Such a service allowsthe client user of the client PC 107 to view and listen to thelive-distributed content and to request for favorite content written ina package medium to be distributed. As described above, since thededicated server connection network 108 is used as the communicationpath between the user PC 106, which is the terminal for transmitting thecontents, and the streaming server 102, it is possible to secure asufficient transmission band. On the other hand, the communication pathbetween the streaming server 102 and the client PC 107 is the one usingthe Internet 103, and therefore it is not always possible to secure asufficient transmission band, and the communication path is likely to besubject to restrictions on the transmission band. Due to suchrestrictions on the transmission band, it is necessary to reduce thetransmission rate of stream data distributed to the client PC 107 and inthis case, the quality of reproduced image of the content maydeteriorate on the client PC 107 side. The above-described service canrespond to the request for viewing and listening to favorite contentswith high-quality video reproduced. That is, using this service, it ispossible to write content sent from the user PC 106 to the streamingserver 102, directly into a package medium and reproduce the writtencontent data with the client PC 107, allowing the client user to viewand listen to the contents with the same quality as that of the contentsent from the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102. In addition, theclient who receives content recorded in such a package medium can viewand listen to the content by reproducing or displaying it on a TV screenusing a player (can be other than a PC) provided with a function ofreproducing/displaying the content stored in the package medium.

Modification 3

The aforementioned embodiment permits the user to perform livedistribution only in a time zone reserved beforehand. However, whilelive distribution based on the reservation is in progress, the streamingserver 102 can refer to the reservation database 151, check thereservation situation after the reservation time of the channelcurrently in use is completed and if there is any free space, send amessage such as “Reservation can be extended to oo” to the user PC 106 apredetermined time before the reservation end time (e.g., ten minutesbefore). The status window SW (see FIG. 9A) of the user PC 106 that hasreceived this message, etc. can display this message. In this case, anextension button is displayed on the status window SW, and when thisextension button is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 sends theinformation that an extension will be made, to the streaming server 102.The streaming server 102 that has received this permits the extension.Carrying out such an extension service provides effects such as makingit possible to respond to an extension request from the user of the userPC 106 who is the distributor and also allowing the service provider tomake effective use of the channel of the streaming server 102.

Modification 4

Furthermore, the aforementioned embodiment describes the case where theprogram to execute distribution reservation processing is pre-installedin the hard disk of the live casting server 150 or the program toexecute various kinds of processing for making a reservation fordistribution or various kinds of processing for live distribution ispre-installed in the hard disk 123 of the user PC 106. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this and it is also possible toinstall the various kinds of the programs by reproducing a programstorage medium which is a package medium such as a compact disc-readonly memory (CD-ROM) or a digital versatile disc-read only memory(DVD-ROM), storing the content distribution program or install thevarious kinds of the programs by reproducing a program storage mediumsuch as semiconductor memory or magneto-optical disk in which such aprogram is stored temporarily or permanently.

As the means for storing the various kinds of programs in such a programstorage medium, it is also possible to use wired or wirelesscommunication medium such as a local area network or digital satellitebroadcasting or to store those programs via various communicationinterfaces such as a router and modem.

Modification 5

Furthermore, the aforementioned embodiment describes the case where theInternet 103 is used as the network to make a reservation fordistribution between the user PC 106 and the live casting server 150,but the present invention is not limited to this and it is also possibleto use another type of wired or wireless network.

Furthermore, in the aforementioned embodiment, the dedicated serverconnection network 108 is provided to connect the user PC 106 and thestreaming server 102, but the present invention is not limited to thisand it is also possible to connect them via the Internet 103.

Modification 6

Furthermore, in the aforementioned embodiment, the user PC 106 with abuilt-in digital video camera 129 is used as the transmitter terminalfor live distribution, but it is also possible to use an ordinary PCwith a digital video camera connected via the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 interface, etc. with cables or aPC connected to a digital video camera which is connected by radio. Itis also possible to use a cellular phone with a digital video cameraconnected using a cable, etc. or a cellular phone with a built-indigital video camera, instead of the user PC 106.

The case where a cellular phone using a built-in digital video camerainstead of the user PC 106 will be explained below.

In FIG. 39, reference numeral 200 denotes a network system to which acellular phone MS3 applying the present invention is connected, and basestations CS1 to CS4, which are fixed radio stations, are located intheir respective cells resulting from dividing the communication servicesupply area into desired sizes.

These base stations CS1 to CS4 are connected to portable informationterminals MS1 and MS2, which are mobile radio stations, andcamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 by radio accordingto a wideband-code division multiple access (W-CDMA) scheme and arecapable of transmitting a large volume data at a high data transfer rateof up to 2 Mbps using a 2 GHz frequency band.

In this way, the portable information terminals MS1 and MS2 andcamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 can communicate alarge volume data at a high transfer rate according to the W-CDMAsystem, and can thereby perform not only voice communication but alsovarious kinds of data communication such as transmission/reception ofe-mail, browsing of simple homepages, transmission/reception of images.

Furthermore, the base stations CS1 to CS4 are connected to the telephonenetwork 104 via a wired line, and this telephone network 104 isconnected to the Internet 103 and many subscriber wired terminals (notshown), computer networks and intra-networks, etc.

The telephone network 104 is also connected to the access server AS ofthe Internet service provider and the access server AS is connected to acontents server TS owned by the Internet service provider.

This contents server TS provides content such as simple homepage as afile in a compact hyper text markup language (HTML) format, for example,in response to the request from the subscriber wired terminal, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4. This compact HTML is an HTML subset obtained bykeeping only tags that can be reflected and leaving out the rest of alimit-sized display apparatus. For example, iMode (registered trademark)of NTT DoCoMo uses an i-mode HTML which focuses on functions necessaryfor a cellular phone and uses 30 types of tags and has restrictions suchthat it is not possible to specify character attributes and colors oftext and a two-gradation GIF file is recommended for images. It ispossible to create a simple homepage file that is browsed by portableterminals with a limited display area and display capability by usinghandheld device markup language (HDML) and wireless markup language(HML) which are descriptive languages used for the compact HML and themobile communication protocol wireless application protocol (WAP), etc.

In this network system 200, the Internet 103 is connected to the serverreservation control center 101, streaming server 102 the same as in theaforementioned embodiment, and the subscriber wired terminals, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4 can access the server reservation control center 101and streaming server 102 according to a protocol such as TCP/IP(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). In the exampleillustrated, when a content distribution is performed using thestreaming server 102, the camera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3and MS4 send contents to the streaming server 102 over the dedicatedserver connection network 108 as in the aforementioned embodiment, andalso content can be sent over the Internet 103.

By the way, the portable information terminals MS1 and MS2, and thecamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 communicate withbase stations CS1 to CS4 using a simple transport protocol of 2 Mbps(not shown) and the base stations CS1 to CS4 communicate with WWW serverWS1 to “WSn over the Internet ITN using a TCP/IP protocol.

By the way, the management control unit MCU is connected to thesubscriber wired terminals, portable information terminals MS1 and MS2and camera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 via thetelephone network 104 and is responsible for authentication processingand billing processing on the subscriber wired terminals, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4.

Next, a configuration example of the appearance of the camera-integrateddigital cellular phone MS3 that can be used instead of the user PC 106above will be explained. As shown in FIG. 40, the camera-integrateddigital cellular phone MS3 is divided into the display section 212 andmain unit 213 with the hinge 211 located in the center as the boundaryand is foldable via the hinge 211.

The display section 212 has a transmission/reception antenna 214 at thetop left set in a telescopic manner and radio waves aretransmitted/received to/from the base station CS3 via the antenna 214.

Furthermore, the display section 212 is provided with a camera section215 at the top center which is pivotable at an angle of nearly 180degrees and a CCD camera 216 mounted in the camera section 215 allows adesired object to be captured.

Here, in the display section 212 when the user rotates the camerasection 215 nearly 180 degrees, a speaker 217 provided in the center onthe back of the camera section 215 faces toward the front, whichprovides a normal voice conversation state.

The display section 212 is further provided with an LCD display 218 onthe front to show the reception quality of a radio wave, the batterylevel, names and telephone numbers registered in a telephone directory,transmission history, contents of e-mail, simple homepage and imagestaken with the CCD camera 216 of the camera section 215.

On the other hand, the main unit 213 is provided with operation keys 219including numeral keys “0” to “9”, call key, redial key, end/power key,clear key and e-main key and it is possible to enter various commandsusing these operation keys 219.

The main unit 213 is also provided with a memo button 220 and amicrophone 221 under the operation keys 219 and it is possible to recordvoice during a call using the memo button 220 and collect the user'svoice during conversation by the microphone 221.

The main unit 213 is also provided with a jog dial 222 above theoperation keys 219, which is pivotable and slightly protrudes from thesurface of the main unit 213, and executes various operations such asscrolling of the telephone directory and e-mail displayed on the LCDdisplay 218, rolling-up of the simple homepage and image feedingoperations, etc, according to the rotation operation of the jog dial222.

For example, when the user selects a desired telephone number from amonga plurality of telephone numbers in the telephone directory displayed onthe LCD display 218 according to the rotation operation of the jog dial222 and presses the jog dial 222 toward inside the main unit 213, themain unit 213 confirms the selected telephone number and automaticallycalls on the relevant telephone number.

By the way, the main unit 213 is provided with a battery pack (notshown) on the back and when the end/power key is in the ON state, thebattery supplies power to each section to drive them.

On the other hand, the main unit 213 is also provided with a memorystick slot 224 to insert a removable memory stick (trademark of SonyCorporation) on the top left side of the main unit 213 and when the memobutton 220 is pressed, it is possible to record the voice of the otherparty in communication in this memory stick or store e-mail, simplehomepage or images taken by the CCD camera 216 according to theoperations by the user.

The memory stick 223 is a type of flash memory card developed by SonyCorporation, the present applicant. This memory stick 223 contains aflash memory element, which is an electrically erasable and programmableread only memory (EEPROM), a kind of electrically erasable andprogrammable non-volatile memory, in a small, thin plastic case of 21.5(H)×50 (W)×2.8 (D) mm, and allows write/read of various kinds of datasuch as images, voice and music via a ten-pin terminal.

Furthermore, the memory stick 223 uses a special serial protocol thatcan secure compatibility with apparatuses used even if the specificationof an internal flash memory is changed because of introduction of alarge-volume memory, implements high-speed performance with a maximumwriting speed of 1.5 MB/S and maximum read speed of 2.45 MB/S andsecures high reliability by providing a erroneous erasure protectionswitch.

Constructed with the capability of inserting such a memory stick 223,the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 can share data withother electronic devices via this memory stick 223.

As illustrated in FIG. 42, in the camera-integrated digital cellularphone MS3, a main control section 250 that controls the display section212 and main unit 213, a power supply circuit 251, an operation inputcontrol section 252, an image encoder 253, a camera interface section254, a liquid crystal display (LCD) control section 255, an imagedecoder 256, a multiplexing/separation section 257, a record/replaysection 262, a modulation/demodulation circuit 258 and an audio CODEC259, are mutually connected by a main bus 260, and the image encoder253, the image decoder 256, the multiplexing/separation section 257, themodulation/demodulation circuit 258 and the audio CODEC 259 are mutuallyconnected by a synchronous bus 261.

The power supply circuit 251, when the user turns ON the end/power key,supplies power from the battery pack to each sections to drive thecamera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3.

The camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 converts the audiosignal collected by the microphone 221 to digital audio data by theaudio CODEC 259 in voice conversation mode, subjects this to spreadspectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjectsthis to digital/analog conversion processing and frequency conversionprocessing at the transmission/reception circuit 263 and transmits theresultant from the antenna 214, under the control of main controlsection 250 composed of a CPU, ROM and RAM, etc.

The camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 amplifies the receptionsignal received by the antenna 214 in the voice conversation mode,subjects this to frequency conversion processing and analog/digitalconversion processing, subjects this to despread spectrum processing atthe modulation/demodulation circuit 258, converts the resultant to ananalog audio signal at the audio CODEC 259 and outputs this via thespeaker 217.

Furthermore, when transmitting an e-mail in the data communication mode,the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 sends text data of thee-mail which has been entered by operating the operation keys 219 andjog dial 222 to the main control section 250 via the operation inputcontrol section 252.

The main control section 250 subjects the text data to spread spectrumprocessing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjects todigital/analog conversion processing and frequency conversion processingat the transmission/reception circuit 263 and then transmits theresultant to the base station CS3 (see FIG. 39) via the antenna 214.

On the other hand, when receiving an e-mail in the data communicationmode, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 subjects thereception signal received by the base station CS3 via the antenna 214 todespread spectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258,restores the original text data and then displays the text data as thee-mail on the LCD display 218 via the LCD control section 255.

Then, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 can also storethe e-mail, which has been received according to the operation of theuser, in the memory stick 223 via the record/replay section 262.

On the other hand, when sending image data in the data communicationmode, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 supplies theimage data taken by the CCD camera 216, to the image encoder 253 via thecamera interface section 254.

By the way, when no image data is sent, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 can also directly display the image data taken by theCCD camera 216 on the LCD display 218 via the camera interface section254 and LCD control section 255.

The image encoder 253 converts the image data supplied from the CCDcamera 216 into encoded image data, by compressing/encoding according toa predetermined encoding system such as moving picture experts group(MPEG) 2 or MPEG4 and sends this to the multiplexing/separation section257.

At this time, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 sends thevoice collected by the microphone 221 during shooting by the CCD camera216 as digital audio data to the multiplexing/separation section 257 viathe audio CODEC 259.

The multiplexing/separation section 257 multiplexes the encoded imagedata supplied from the image encoder 253 and the audio data suppliedfrom the audio CODEC 259 according to a predetermined system, subjectsthe resultant multiplexed data to spread spectrum processing at themodulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjects this to digital/analogconversion processing and frequency conversion processing at thetransmission/reception section 262 and transmits the resultant via theantenna 214.

On the other hand, in data communication mode, when receiving, forexample, data of a motion picture file linked to a simple homepage,etc., the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 subjects thereception signal received via the antenna 214 from the base station CS3to despread spectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit258 and sends the resultant multiplexed data to themultiplexing/separation section 257.

The multiplexing/separation section 257 separates the multiplexed datainto encoded image data and audio data, supplies the encoded image datato the image decoder 256 and supplies the audio data to the audio CODEC259 via the synchronous bus 261.

The image decoder 256 decodes the encoded image data according to adecoding system corresponding to a predetermined encoding system such asMPEG2 or MPEG4 to create reproduced motion picture data, supplies thisto the LCD display 218 via the LCD control section 255, and thereby, forexample, motion picture data contained in the motion picture file linkedto the simple homepage is displayed.

At the same time, the audio CODEC 259 converts audio data to an analogaudio signal, then supplies this to the speaker 217 and thereby,reproduces audio data included in the motion picture file linked to thesimple homepage, for example.

In this case, as in the case of e-mail, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 can store the data linked to the received simplehomepage, etc. in the memory stick 223 via the recording/replay section262 through operations by the user.

In addition to such a configuration, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 stores an application program, etc. similar to thatin the aforementioned embodiment in the ROM of the main control section250, accesses the live casting server 150 (see FIG. 12) of thereservation control center 101 based on this application program, canthereby perform live distribution reservation processing includingmember registration and reconfirmation to the live casting server 150,and when a reservation is made, receives the reservation settinginformation file (see FIG. 28) and automatically encrypts and saves thefile. At this time, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 canperform processing similar to live distribution processing based on areservation carried out by the user PC 106 in the aforementionedembodiment. Thus, in a live distribution, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 automatically reads the reservation settinginformation file saved in the reservation processing and establishes acommunication/connection with the streaming server 102 and sends thecontent taken with the CCD camera 216 to the streaming server 102 andperforms a live distribution of the content.

While there has been described in connection with the preferredembodiments of the invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in theart that various changes and modifications may be aimed, therefore, tocover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A terminal apparatus capable of transmitting image data to apredetermined apparatus via a network, comprising: acquiring means foracquiring image data; transmitting means for transmitting said acquiredimage data to said predetermined apparatus via said network; controlmeans for applying a predetermined effect to said image data and forcontrolling said transmitting means to transmit image data to which thepredetermined effect was applied to said predetermined apparatus in realtime.
 2. A terminal apparatus capable of transmitting image data to apredetermined apparatus via a network, comprising: capturing unitconfigured to capture image data; transmitting unit configured totransmit said acquired image data to said predetermined apparatus viasaid network; control unit configured to apply a predetermined effect tosaid image data and to control said transmitting unit to transmit imagedata to which the predetermined effect was applied to said predeterminedapparatus in real time.